The Children Are Our Future
by Callisto-HK
Summary: Gibbs and Shannon love their kids; adopted or not! They both agree Tony and Abby are the best things that ever happened to them. Still, they're both young and inexperienced and they tend to make mistakes, even though they really wish they wouldn't, especially with the insecure little Tony, who's already been hurt too much./Kid AU-Tony-centric/ PLS read the A/N in the first chapter
1. Miles to Go - 1

**Important A/N:** So, here is another AU that wouldn't leave me alone! I mean I've read some very good Kid!Tony stories by great fic-writers and I couldn't resist the idea. So here's my own version.

 **This is a collection of separate stories, but one story-line might not end in one chapter.**

 **The stories of this collection are not exactly related to one another. When one story-line ends and a new one starts, it won't have anything to do with the events of the last one; there won't be a reference to it or anything; you could even pretend the last one has never happened if you like! They're totally separated. The only common thing between all of them is the fact that Gibbs and Shannon have adopted Tony and Abby and Kate and Tim might come to their house for some of the stories.**

 **It all will become clear once you read the first part of the first chapter and that's why you need to read at least the first story to get familiar with the idea.**

 **Also, there's no order in the way I post the stories of the series; that is to say in one story Tony could be 8 and in the next one 7. It merely depends on how they come to my mind, but in any case, the information about their ages and all other needed explanations would be given during the story; pretty sure you won't feel lost.**

 **Again, all you need to know about how the kids have come to stay with Gibbs, who Gibbs and Shannon are and the information about everyone's past are given in the first chapter of the first story -this one-, and these are the things that'd remain the same for every story of this collection.**

 **Also, in this universe, Kelly has never been born. No more explanation is needed, I guess; If you read the first chapter, everything will be clear.**

 **WARNING: Beware of the references to disturbing images such as child abuse.**

 **Remember that these stories all take place when the four kids of this series were actually kids; that'd make it sometime before 1980, so far.  
**

 **Hope you like it.**

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 **\- Miles to Go -**

.

They had Tony the longest; it was now the third year that Tony was living with them and the 8 year old boy - _or as Tony liked to say; almost 9_ \- was doing much better than when he'd first come to their house. He now laughed easily and seemed full of life and of course he was a little mischievous, like any other boy his age would be.

Sadly, he was still being haunted by the nightmares of the years he'd spent with his real father; the guy who'd been either absent or if he'd been present, he'd be drunk and punishing his small son for one reason or another.

Tony didn't remember much of his real Mom; she'd died when he'd been just three; had killed herself to be exact. What Tony _remembered_ about her was her lifeless, glazed over eyes, gazing at the ceiling, and the blood that had covered her clothes, her wrists and hands and the very colorful Persian carpet on which she was lying. Tony also clearly remembered the horror he'd felt when he'd seen that scene; the crippling fear, that to this day, he still felt in his bones. He'd been the one who'd found his mother's body and had been so shocked and scared that he'd stood there for very long minutes until one of the staff had finally come to that room and her screams had brought everyone else running to the scene to see what had happened.

That had been precisely the beginning of Tony's extended nightmare; his father who prior to that day always ignored his existence and never even answered his calls and questions, was now completely aware of having a son; a son who could be the punching bag for his rage and he'd made sure to take advantage of that opportunity whenever he was nearby. The words that had been said to the boy during those years and the damage that had been done to him, mentally and physically would never completely disappear, but, at least, after two and a half years of living with the Gibbs, he was now able to hide his immense pain, his fears and even smile and laugh like the little boy he was.

The Gibbs had first seen him when he'd tried to escape his father's house when he'd been 6; they'd almost run him over with their car, but fortunately Gibbs' reflexes, and of course the brakes of their car, were good enough to prevent a tragedy from happening. They hadn't hit Tony with their car, but the boy had collapsed nevertheless and once they got him to the hospital, they realized that the internal bleeding from the beating that he'd suffered at his father's hands and probably the pain had been the cause of his collapse.

The CPS had been called next and after months of trying to prove themselves, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Shannon Gibbs were the proud parents of little Tony, who at the time was so traumatized that he barely spoke, barely ate and never even smiled. But well, they were good parents and did everything in their power to fix those problems the best way they could.

They'd been unable to have any kids of their own; they'd tried for years and had finally given up and if either of them believed in coincidences or luck they'd have called it their luck that they had decided to get a certificate of being eligible for adopting children right before they'd run into Tony. Their prior efforts made it much easier for them to prevent Tony from getting lost in the system and they were thrilled about it and about the fact that they'd found an amazing boy like little Tony, who despite being traumatized, was very polite and well-behaved, really kind to everyone -young and old- and truly sharp and clever.

After Tony, they soon adopted another child; a little girl, named Abby, this time. She was full of life and energy from the beginning; she'd lost both her parents in an accident and although she missed them, she didn't remember much to mourn; she was only four, two years younger than Tony and had spent a while in a foster home, because people didn't want to adopt a girl who collected bugs and loved to play with spiders.

Abby didn't take to Tony straightaway; she didn't like that Tony wouldn't talk to her and wouldn't play with her and thought he was one of those boys who thought girls had cooties and she hated those boys. But after a while, she realized that it wasn't just her that Tony didn't talk to or play with; Tony was very quiet in general and liked to just either read his books or watch TV and even that happened when he was alone; for some reasons, Tony always shied away from everyone and that made Abby think of him as a little bunny who was stuck in a hole and so was scared of everything and since she loved helping bunnies, she made it her special mission to make Tony realize he didn't need to be scared.

Jethro and Shannon were very pleased with how Abby brought Tony out of his shell and they helped any way they could; making it clear to Tony that things were different in his new house; that he was loved and wouldn't be punished for just being alive; or for anything else, in case Tony wondered.

Those two were their real kids now and they'd decided that they wouldn't adopt any more kids; but it didn't stop them from taking care of other kids if it was needed; for example, there was Katie, who was 9 the first time she came to stay with them; she was the daughter of one of Shannon's friends and since she'd been really sick, Shannon had volunteered to take care of her daughter so she could concentrate on getting better; Katie was bitter because of that and what she enjoyed the most was bickering with Tony and teaming up with Abby against Tony who was the only boy there. Tony didn't mind it; he was sharp and always came up with his own ways of teasing Kate; so they were good; and if every now and then they did things that'd hurt each other, they'd move on quickly. Sometimes, Kate would say things that reminded Tony of his time with his father, but he always hid it, because he didn't want to be mocked by the two girls who were always around him and besides, he loved Abby and he liked that Kate was there to play with them, even if they, sometimes, excluded him from their games or would team up against him.

Then came Tim; he wasn't an orphan either and he wasn't taken from his abusive family; he did have a family and they weren't abusive at all; in fact his mother always showed him that he was loved and his father, although very strict and scarce with positive words; never hurt his child, not even with his words; he just had a very high expectation of his son, but he'd never let anyone hurt his son. But because of his job, they had to move around a lot and lately they'd realized that all the moving was leaving negative effects on their child and after some talks, they'd been convinced to let the boy stay with a family for a few weeks and if that worked out, he'd stay with them for the school year and go home to his parents, wherever they were, for the holidays and the whole summer.  
The Gibbs were the family that Timmy was sent to; Gibbs' military background had been approved by Tim's father and the Gibbs had thought the addition of a little boy to their family could balance the situation since it seemed like that Abby and Kate had taken control of everything in the house.

What they hadn't expected was Tim getting so close to Abby so quickly; they were both almost 7 now and shared many interests when it came to books and video games.

What Gibbs and Shannon didn't _notice_ even after Tim came to live with them for the school year was that now all the three children were teaming up against Tony most of the time and that they all excluded him from their games; Tony had tried to keep up, refusing to let his playful mind go to that dark place where his father and his blood-covered mother were hiding and waiting for him. But little by little, the boy started to see more glimpses of those scary shadows and to keep them away, he started to get more creative; more mischievous and more desperate to make the other kids play with him or the parents notice him. And it became a cycle; the more he tried, the more snappish the other kids became and even Abby didn't play with him much; she preferred spending her time with Kate and Timmy now and she seemed to never have time to play with Tony with his action figures. Tony was willing to play video games with them, even though he didn't like those games all that much; but they wouldn't let him; a couple of times, they'd even told him that he wouldn't get how to play those games because he wasn't as smart as the rest of them and he'd just make them lose.

That had hurt Tony, which led to him trying to play tricks on them, which was a step towards them getting more upset with him and complaining to the grownups about it; Shannon was more patient with them, but Gibbs was losing it; he'd snap at Tony to play nice or not to tease the others or just leave them alone and Tony would stop for like 5 minute, looking chastised, but then he'd start again, which was grating on Gibbs nerves.

So you see, a vicious cycle, really! There was no way to get out of it and what happened because of it was a disaster waiting to happen.

When it happened, it was an evening when Shannon was at the hospital working a night shift, so the kids were alone with Gibbs. The man was making dinner for them and at the same time was trying to figure out what they were missing in their case that they couldn't solve it. He had recently become a Junior Agent at NIS and was actually enjoying his new job and the mystery that came with it; but Mike Franks, his boss, could be really irritating at times and it wasn't always easy to make a breakthrough in their cases. So, that night, his mind was occupied; he was tired from work and the kids wouldn't stop running around.

"For the last time; do _not_ run in the house." He hollered from the Kitchen.

Just as he was trying to concentrate on the notes he'd taken during the case, a girlish scream came from the staircase and then a loud thud followed it. With his heart in his throat, he ran out of the kitchen to find Abby lying on the ground with Tony kneeling beside her, looking at her worriedly, murmuring words of apologies.

"What the hell is going on here?" He knew that Shannon would have his head if she heard him using that language, but she wasn't there and well, _he_ was.

"It's Tony's fault." Kate spat angrily.

"What? No." Tony looked frightened, but Gibbs was seeing red; his baby girl was lying on the floor, crying her eyes out, with blood on her arm and a forming bruise on her forehead. Seeing that, something in Gibbs snapped; he rushed to her side and in the process of reaching her, he grabbed Tony's arm and with much more force than needed on a kid, he pulled him away from Abby and shoved him aside. His mind didn't even register the gasp that left Tony's mouth; all his focus was on Abby.

"Shhh, it's alright, baby. Let me see your arm." He soothed.

"It hurts." Abby wailed.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry, but let me see. OK?"

"Dad?" Tony's tentative voice irritated him even more.

"I told you _not_ to run in the house." Gibbs turned his head and snapped at the little boy. "You've been getting more and more irritating and I don't know what the hell to do with you anymore. I'm this close-..." Taking a deep breath, he used a calmer, yet colder voice to say, "Get the hell out of my sight."

"Da-"

"Don't." He cut the boy's word off. "Don't say a word. I don't wanna hear you. I don't wanna see you. Get to your room and stay there. I'll deal with you later."

The angry, reddened face; the harsh words and threats and the behavior Tony saw in the man, in that moment, were the exact things that he'd wished and thought he'd never see again; but here he was; he'd screwed up again and now he was going to be punished. His father had been right; it was all his fault; he should've never been born. Gibbs was the nicest man he'd known and now even _he_ couldn't stand him and was going to _deal_ with him. Deal with him! Those were the words that his father always used when it came to him.

With trembling chin and fearful eyes, Tony dropped his head to his chest, muttered a quiet ' _sorry_ ' and walked up the stairs to his room to wait for his punishment there. He'd always known that his life here was too good to be true, but he'd let himself feel comfortable; he'd let his guard down; he'd become a bad boy and now he was going to pay for it; maybe Gibbs would send him away; or maybe he'd keep him and punish him for being there like his father used to do. And once again, Tony felt he deserved to be punished; because he was a screw-up who always ruined everything. He didn't mean to, but it happened nevertheless; he'd just wanted to play with Abby and the other kids, but... No; he couldn't blame anyone but himself; it was all his fault; he should've just stayed in his room; quiet and out of sight; that was what he was supposed to do; his father had always told him that he was nothing but a disappointment and that he shouldn't be seen or heard and he'd forgotten those rules here and now Abby was hurt because of it.

Downstairs, Kate and Tim who didn't know anything about Tony's past, felt satisfied that he was going to be punished; maybe this way he'd leave them alone. Abby was too distracted to realize what had happened and Gibbs was too worried about his baby girl to notice what kind of damage he'd caused.

Picking the small girl up in his arms, he walked to the bathroom to clean her scratched arm and to check her for any other injury; after half an hour of close examination, he finally sighed with relief. The girl was fine; no broken bones and no serious injury; the bump to her head wasn't anything serious either and the girl had calmed down and was now giggling at something Kate had said.

"OK, let's go eat dinner." He said when his nose registered the smell coming from the Kitchen. "We don't wanna waste the food that I've spent so much time on, do we?"

The kids giggled and followed him to the kitchen; none of them caring that Tony wasn't there with them and Gibbs still too mad or maybe shaken to remember they weren't all at the dinner table; there were so many things going on in his head that he simply didn't see what was happening in front of him or who was there and who was not.

Once the dinner was eaten, the kids were sent to get ready for bed. An hour later, they were all tucked in their beds and Gibbs felt quite happy with himself, feeling like a good, capable father. With a content sigh, he grabbed a mug of coffee and went to the living room to once again go through his notes and see if he could find a way to crack the case. Unaware that that night, Tony didn't go to bed; he didn't do anything; he just sat in the corner of his room, shaking quietly with fear as he waited to be dealt with. The little boy finally fell asleep in the corner of his room around two in the morning.

 **.**

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 **TBC ...**

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 ** _A/N: Share your thoughts with me?_**

 ** _Also, I know this is just a Kid-fic and completely AU, but some of the ideas I use are triggered by the actual events of the show; I sure have exaggerated here because this is a fiction and an AU for that; but some of the behaviors we saw on the show were actually kinda childish or they were problems that weren't dealt with properly, so, they seemed kinda appropriate for these stories._**

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	2. Miles to Go - 2

_**A/N:** **Let me assure you that this is not a story with Gibbs as an abuser** ; that was never my intention and I'm sorry if that's what I conveyed. I merely wanted to show he made a mistake and like I said, I had to exaggerate a bit since even in an AU, I still intend to show the wrongness of Gibbs' attitude on the show and with the way he was during the last season (and even before that), I'm still a bit riled up.  
_

 ** _You've got a point about the dinner part, though; as someone who never eats dinner, I keep forgetting it's not alright for everyone to skip it and that not everyone does that. But really; Gibbs just forgot because he was worried and had so many things going on around him (not a good excuse, but it actually happens sometimes); it was never meant to make it sound like he's neglecting Tony or being abusive with taking his food away from him and I get it that with wrong wording I made it look like he did it on purpose, so yes, I changed it a bit to clear things up.  
_**

 ** _Thanks for pointing my mistake out; I'm all for constructive criticism and again, sorry if I made anyone uncomfortable; I get it because to me, even spanking a kid is totally wrong and that makes me uncomfortable and I'd like to avoid doing the same thing to the others in my stories._**

 ** _And finally, thanks a lot for your support and helpful words; all of you. Your supportive words encourage me and your criticism helps me make less mistakes._**

* * *

 _The kids giggled and followed him to the kitchen; none of them caring that Tony wasn't there with them and Gibbs was still too mad or maybe shaken to remember they weren't all at the dinner table; there were so many things going on in his head that he simply didn't see what was happening in front of him or who was there and who was not._

 _Once the dinner was eaten, the kids were sent to get ready for bed. An hour later, they were all tucked in their beds and Gibbs felt quite happy with himself, feeling like a good, capable father. With a content sigh, he grabbed a mug of coffee and went to the living room to once again go through his notes and see if he could find a way to crack the case. Unaware that that night, Tony didn't go to bed; he didn't do anything; he just sat in the corner of his room, shaking quietly with fear as he waited to be dealt with. The little boy finally fell asleep in the corner of his room around two in the morning._

* * *

The next morning, Shannon called her husband to tell him that there had been an accident and they were swamped, so she couldn't come home that soon. Gibbs had to call his boss and ask if he could stay home with the kids or if he needed to find someone to come and watch them and was glad when Franks told him he could take the day and that he and Wilson, the SFA, could take care of the case on their own.

That being taken care of, he stood up and started to prepare the breakfast for the kids; they'd be up any minute now and since it was Saturday, they'd want to do something fun at home. He'd completely forgotten the events of the previous night and once the kids showed up in the kitchen, and his eldest wasn't among them, he frowned; it wasn't like Tony to oversleep; maybe he was sick?

Putting the plates in front of the kids, he absently wondered whether he should go up and wake the boy or maybe he should let him sleep since he didn't have school that day.

"Daddy?" Abby's tentative voice took his attention and it was then that he noticed the bruised forehead and the images of last night's incident rushed through his head.

"Yes, baby? Are you alright?" He asked worriedly.

"Yes, but... It's just-" She paused, eyeing the empty seat that her brother usually occupied and said, "Last night wasn't Tony's fault. Could you please not punish him and let him have breakfast?"

"What?" Gibbs was confused. ' _Let him? Why would Abby say that? He'd never keep his kids from having their meals.'  
_

"Well, you didn't let him have dinner last night, so he must be really hungry now and you were really mad at him and told him you didn't wanna see him and Daddy, it wasn't his fault I fell; he didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes, he did." Kate jumped in; she was tired of Tony's behavior and didn't mind a little bit of silence.

"He pushed you." Tim helped when he heard Kate's words.

"No." Abby screamed. "He didn't push me. He wasn't even _near_ me. You fell on me and so I fell down the stair." She was now really angry at her playmates; how could they lie like that? Turning her gaze to her dad's confused one, she said, "Daddy, we were all playing together; Tony had grabbed my book and wouldn't give it to me, which I don't mind, but Timmy and Kate were screaming at him to give it back and Tony just held it up and he's taller than us, so Tim was jumping up to catch it but he missed one of the steps and fell back and bumped into me and then I fell down. I swear I'm telling the truth; Tony didn't do anything. Please don't hit him." She was close to tears now.

"Abs," Gibbs gasped. "I'd never hit Tony." And damn he was _just_ remembering that Tony hadn't been at dinner with them last night and he hadn't paid much attention to it at the time! ' _What is wrong with me? How could I call myself a father?'_ He thought painfully.

Abby's next words pained him even more. "But you did last night." She sounded uncertain. The images from last night's events weren't clear in her head and how Gibbs had pushed her brother out of the way seemed like hitting him to her.

Gibbs' frown deepened as he tried to remember his words and actions from the previous night and what he remembered sent a cold chill down his spine; he'd hit the boy; well, not really that, but he had handled the boy roughly and for a boy who'd been abused most of his short life, being pushed out of the way like that couldn't have been any better than actually being hit.

And his words... Jesus! Had he actually said those words to Tony? He'd spent months to bring the boy out of his shell and help him trust them; he knew the little boy still had nightmares about the early years of his life and that he still had flashbacks from those days, but they used to happen more frequently and now he'd gone and ruined all their hard work to lessen those nightmares and flashbacks; months and years of hard work was probably now ruined because of his thoughtless words and actions. Had he destroyed everything? Seriously! What the hell was wrong with him?

"Is that true?" He looked at Kate and Tim to hear their side of the story; not that he doubted Abby; he just wanted to see if the other kids would tell the truth or not; because it seemed like unlike Abby, they had no problem putting the blame solely on Tony.

Kate and Tim shared a look; they didn't know what to say. "But it _was_ his fault." Kate finally said, whining a little.

"No, it was not." Abby screamed again. "Why are you lying? You aren't even real part of our family. You two are just staying here until you can get back to your own families; why are you trying to ruin Tony's only family?" She knew about Tony's past; not everything, but she'd heard some stuff from Tony and despite her young age and Tony's secrecy, she knew a few things that were really scary and she knew she didn't even know most of it, and to her that meant it must've been really terrible for Tony and she didn't want Tony to feel that way again, because she could remember the days that she'd just arrived to her new house and the way Tony wouldn't talk or play and she didn't want Tony to get like that again.

Kate and Tim were both pouting now and Gibbs watched the interaction between the kids and Abby's words and reaction made him shudder; she was right and she was just a kid; how could he treat his own son that way? Suddenly it was clear why Tony wasn't at the table with them and God; the boy hadn't even had dinner. Gibbs felt sick and he couldn't help hating himself.

Standing up from where he'd crouched in front of Abby, he said, "Eat your breakfast and go play; quietly." He added. "As for you two-" He eyed the other kids in the room; "We'll have a talk later and I'll let you know what your punishment is. We don't tolerate lying in this house."

Tim looked down quickly, but Kate opened her mouth to protest, Gibbs' glare made her close it immediately and look away, though.

Satisfied with the status quo, Gibbs left the kitchen and with some dread walked up to his son's room.

The moment he opened the door and saw the empty bed, his world tilted; had Tony run away? Had he lost his boy because he'd been unable to control his temper? Had he-

It was then, in the middle of all those awful thoughts that he heard a whimper and turned his head to find Tony's curled-up form in the corner of the room. What was Tony doing there? Why hadn't he slept in his bed? Why-

 _'Why do_ you _think?'_ A scornful voice asked him in his head and it sounded scarily like Shannon's voice! He knew perfectly well that Shannon would be pissed off at him once she heard what he'd done; but he couldn't care about it right then; at that moment, he only cared about Tony and how he'd hurt his little boy.

Cautiously, he knelt beside his son, and gently shook his shoulder. "Tony? Son, can you wake up for me?" He asked quietly, careful not to startle the boy as it was clear that he was having a nightmare again; but apparently to Tony it didn't matter; because one moment the boy was lying on the floor, curled up in that corner and fast asleep, and the next moment, his eyes were wide open and he was sitting upright, pushing his back against the wall, like he thought he'd disappear if he tried hard enough.

"Hey, hey, calm down. It's just me." He tried to smile and sound soothing; like all the other times that he'd dealt with his son after a nightmare; except, this time, _he_ was probably the nightmare and he slightly cringed at that thought.

Tony's eyes were filled with tears, but he clearly was fighting them, not letting them drop. The small boy quickly dropped his gaze to his lap and Gibbs knew it was because of the lessons that had been drilled into him by that good-for-nothing monster that called himself Tony's real father, back at Tony's first home.

"I'm sorry, Sir." The boy murmured quietly; "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

Too perplexed to say anything, Gibbs remained quiet and tried to find the right word.

Tony who'd mistook Gibbs' shock and silence for anger, quickly stood up and took his shirt off and turned his bare back to his dad. "I'm ready, Sir." And he sounded steady and firm and it made Gibbs' stomach churn; because no child should be that OK with being hit; no human-being should be really that OK with it and yet, here, his boy with his already marred skin was letting him beat and belt him and he actually sounded like he was ready for a lesson in fishing, not for being whipped.

The skin on his back still held the telltale signs of his father's abuse; thankfully, they were few pale lines and not very obvious, but it was still heartbreaking to see them, because they told the story of years of abuse; however, what hit Gibbs the hardest and finally made him lose the content of his stomach wasn't any of those old signs; what did it was the angry bruise on his arm. Running towards the bathroom; Gibbs barely made it to the sink before he started to throw up heavily. _He_ 'd left that bruise on his son's small, fragile arm; he'd been the one who'd hurt his son this time; he was no better than his biological father; those thoughts kept running through his head and with each wave, he puked more and more. He, of course, hadn't done it intentionally; at the time, he hadn't even realized that the hold he'd had on Tony's arm had been hard enough to leave a bruise; but that didn't matter; what mattered was that his son's arm was bruised now because he'd hold him too tightly.

He wasn't sure how long it took for him to stop puking; but it felt like hours.

Washing the sink and his mouth and face; he wished he could go back in time and stop his idiot self from doing that to Tony. Eyeing his face in the mirror, he felt sick again; he couldn't stand to look at himself and he couldn't stand the fact that he'd hurt his son with this hand; so before he knew what he was doing, he'd raised his fist and punched the mirror.

The pain that ran through his arm and up his shoulder was strangely satisfying and welcome; the sound of the breaking glass had caught the attention of the kids, though and soon they were all there; all but one; the one that Gibbs needed to see the most at that moment and he was sure the boy hadn't left his room only because Gibbs had ordered him to stay there until he was told otherwise.

"Gibbs?" Kate asked, sounding shocked and Gibbs noticed that Tim was hiding behind the wall, looking scared as Abby stood there, crying quietly.

"Hey; it's alright. Go to your rooms. Everything is OK." He sounded hoarse, but gentle.

"But-"

"Please." The request sounded more like an order, but it did the trick and the kids disappeared in Abby's room and closed the door.

Quietly, he grabbed the first aid kit, bandaged his hand to not scare Tony and walked back to Tony's room; the boy was still standing there with his back towards the door and God, if there was anything left in his stomach, Gibbs was sure he'd lose it again.

"Tony." He sighed quietly.

The boy stiffened, but didn't turn around. "Yes, Sir?"

He couldn't take it anymore; kneeling on the ground, Gibbs turned the boy around and pulled him into a fierce hug. "God, I'm sorry. Tony, I'm really really sorry. I know you probably hate me now and you should. You really should hate me. I hate myself; but I'm sorry; you gotta know that."

Tony was too shocked to say anything. He couldn't understand what was happening; was it part of the punishment? Was it this way in this house? Make him feel comfortable and suddenly strike? He felt that it was worse; he wished Gibbs would just hit him like his father and get it over with. He didn't care if Gibbs broke his bones or if he used his belt; he could take it; he had with his father; what he couldn't take was this uncertainty and it scared him more.

"Please, son. Please don't think I'm like your... Like that guy who just helped to bring you to this world. I'm not him. I love you and I didn't mean to hurt you." Gibbs was still talking.

When Tony remained silent; Gibbs pulled away a little and studied the boy in his arms. "Tony?"

Tony looked up with tears in his eyes and so much fear and uncertainty that Gibbs couldn't help but squeeze him into his chest. "I'm sorry."

"It's OK." The boy finally murmured; realizing that it was what Gibbs was expecting to hear.

"No, it's not." Gibbs shook his head. "Nothing about this is OK and it's all my fault; but I promise you, Tony; this will never happen again. NEVER." He stared the boy in the eyes and hoped the boy could read the sincerity in his eyes.

"It's OK. But-" Tony repeated. "Why are you apologizing?"

That simple question broke Gibbs' resolve and after years of not crying, tears left his eyes. God, what had he done? Tony was so far gone that he couldn't even understand he should hate this man for hurting him; he was thrown back to his early years so suddenly that he'd clearly believed he deserved the punishment and so he couldn't get why he was being apologized to.

"I shouldn't have hurt you, son. Never and in no way and I'm so sorry I did." Gibbs replied, knowing that he needed to make Tony see he hadn't done anything wrong and even if he had, being handled roughly; being sent to his room without food or punished like that wasn't OK and that Gibbs was the one who had done wrong, not him! "You've done nothing wrong; I shouldn't have just assumed and gotten mad at you and I shouldn't have hurt you. I'm sorry. But, Tony; even _if_ it was your fault that Abby fell down the stairs, which I know wasn't your fault because Abby told me the whole story and I should've asked you about it first, instead of jumping into a conclusion; still, even if it'd been your fault, I should've handled it better; I promised you the day you came to us that you'd be safe here; that no one would _ever_ touch you the wrong way or hurt you and here I am, the one who said those words and I still went and hurt you. So, I'm sorry, son and while it doesn't make what I did OK, I'll do everything in my power to make it better."

Tony's innocent face was so open and a tear had escaped the corner of his left eye. He couldn't believe his ears; this was new to him; last night he'd believed that things would become just like they'd been in his father's home and now... Now, Gibbs was apologizing to him; hugging him and saying all these things that didn't make sense; but all those things made him feel wanted and loved. And Gibbs had thrown up and his hand was hurt and he wasn't sure, but it seemed like Gibbs had hurt himself because he'd been angry with himself for hurting Tony and nobody had ever done that for him. So yes, he was lost and totally confused, but he nodded and rested his forehead against Gibbs' chest, feeling safe again for the first time since Abby got hurt.

Maybe things were actually different here; maybe he hadn't screwed up completely. "I'm sorry I screwed up. I didn't mean to." He said quietly into his dad's chest.

"No. No, son, you didn't screw up; I promise you. I'm the one who screwed up and I'll let Mommy punish me for it."

Tony's head snapped up; his green eyes filled with terror; "She'll hit you?"

"Oh, no. No; nobody hits anybody in this house." Gibbs said firmly; "And I know you can't believe me now after what I did last night, but I promise you it won't happen again. Well, I'll probably be grounded; she might take away my privileges; I don't know. We gotta let her decide and I'm sure she'll ask for your opinion. You should help her; I deserve to be punished."

"No." Tony shook his head vigorously.

Gibbs felt his son starting to panic, so he quickly changed his ways. "OK, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. Just calm down, please."

Forcefully, Tony calmed down his breathing. "Thanks, Dad." He said quietly.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Gibbs once again squeezed the boy to his chest. "No, Tony, thank _you_. I couldn't have asked for a better son."

He felt like Tony was falling asleep in his arms and he momentarily thought about letting him; but then he remembered that the boy hadn't had his dinner last night; a stupid mistake on his part that he vowed to never make again; so it wasn't right that the boy skipped breakfast, too. Shaking him slightly, he said, "Hey, what do you say we go and have some breakfast? I'm sorry I didn't come get you for dinner last night. I... I kinda didn't notice because I got scared last night and..." He shook his head. "That's no excuse. I'm sorry I didn't come get you and that I didn't check on you to make sure you've gone to bed. Those are two other things that won't happen again." He felt that even if he apologized till the day he died; he wouldn't be able to make up for his harsh words and actions of the other night. "Hope you've had enough snacks in the evening, at least..." He added quietly.

Tony was hungry, but not too much. "I did." He replied just as quietly and with his father's help, he stood up to go have some breakfast.

"After that, maybe you can go play with Abby? She was worried about you and I'm sure she'd love to have you around. Kate and Tim are gonna be grounded for a while." He squeezed his son's shoulder and ushered him down the stairs. Tony was still quiet and Gibbs knew it'd take more than one talk to bring the smile and life back to his face and once again, he silently cursed himself for it; but he was determined to prove it to his precious boy that he meant it when he said he was sorry and that he wouldn't hurt him again. Not deliberately. He wasn't one to apologize really, but with the way he'd screwed up, he'd apologize to Tony forever if he had to. He just hoped that Tony could find it in himself to become so playful and energetic again and soon; he was already missing Tony's smile, laughter and voice when his mouth worked a mile a minute as he talked about his day. He just hoped he hadn't ruined things beyond repair.

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 **The End...**

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 _ **A/N: That's it for this one.**_ _ ** _ **The next chapter will have a new storyline.**_**_

 _ **Let me know what you think?**_

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	3. Choose Your Family Wisely - 1

_**A/N: Here's another story in this universe; this one is probably gonna have 3 chapters and if I can find enough time between working and doing the university papers and studying for exams, I'll hopefully post a chapter each week, or a chapter every two weeks, at most.**_

 _Thanks for your reviews for the last story and your faves and alerts._

 _I'm sorry I didn't add Shannon's reaction for the last one; the things is, since we're gonna have enough of that in the future stories and for different reasons, I thought it's better to leave that one right there._

 _ **Also, Anya, thank you for your great idea; I love it and I sure will try to write something around it.**_

 _ **I'm sorry, but I'm really not sure about the gaps between the updates; it depends on how busy I get each week (like I said, there are things like the job, my university projects and papers and then the house chores, and they all need attention and time); but I can promise that every time I start a new story-line, I'll post its chapters close to each other and won't keep you guys waiting for long.**_

 _Hope you like this one and let me know what you think._

 **No Tim in this one.**

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 **\- Choose Your Family Wisely -**

.

OK, so basically, it'd been _Tony_ who'd started their war; it'd started with a simple prank and when Kate had retaliated, the prank war had officially started.

Tony'd been doing everything he could to annoy Kate; sneaking into her room and hiding her books; putting her doll and stuff on the top shelf so she couldn't reach them and then putting one of the jars of Abby's spiders, which Kate hated and was clearly scared of; in her bed. He thought it'd been really considerate and nice of him that he hadn't _opened_ the jar before leaving it there; at least the spider couldn't come out; he could've done just that, but he'd taken pity on her at the last moment.

But to his defense... Well, he had nothing; he was bored and just wanted to have some fun and it wasn't like he could play with Kate and Abby when all they did those days was playing with Abby's new dollhouse; it was stupid and so very boring; Tony couldn't understand how they could enjoy it so much; at least Abby had made Gibbs paint the dollhouse black and its pink color wouldn't blind him every time he stepped inside her room.

He'd tried to keep himself busy with just his books and movies and action figures, but he actually liked spending time with Kate and Abby; they could be fun if they wanted to and he just had to find a way to get Kate remember that playing with pink dolls wasn't cool and fun. But no matter what he did, he kept coming to dead ends and Kate got madder and madder at him; which admittedly was fun to watch and even Abby giggled at how Kate's face would change colors between pink, red and purple.

Those days, hearing Kate screaming Tony's name had become so natural in the house that neither the parents, nor the babysitter ever paid too much attention to it; they pretty much ignored it and minded their own business. Everyone was aware that Kate knew how to retaliate.

Like the times that she, in return, would hang pink ribbons from Tony's bicycle; sneak into Tony's room and wrap all Tony's toys and books in red and pink ribbons and draw pink flowers and hearts in the corner of Tony's notebooks to embarrass him between his friends; once even, with Abby's help, she'd sneaked in his room while he was asleep and together, they'd painted some of his nails pink, put a doll in his arm and then took a picture of him with the Polaroid Camera that Shannon kept in the closet in the living room; and had shown the picture to everyone in the house.

Everyone had laughed at the pictures; everyone except Tony, of course, who, all along, had been planning the perfect revenge in his head.

After getting rid of the picture the girls had taken, Tony had finally decided that freeing the spiders Abby owned in Kate's bag would be the ultimate prank and would teach Kate a lesson for taking that picture of him.

When he went to Kate's room to take her bag to his own room, though, his foot accidentally hit Kate's desk and the photo album which had been left on the desk dropped to the floor. Tony quickly went to pick it up and put it back on the desk, but the album had opened when it'd dropped down and the photos of Kate with her real family caught the boy's attention. He noticed that they all seemed so happy; in every picture that was there, Kate had one or both of her parents with her; with either their hands on her shoulders or their arms half way or fully around her, hugging her to their sides or their chests.

Pictures like that were truly mesmerizing for someone with Tony's past. He absently touched the photos with the tip of his fingers, and even though he loved his new mom and dad more than anything else in this world and was really happy for being with them, he couldn't help but wish that his _real_ mom and dad hadn't hated him so much. He wondered what would've happened if his mother hadn't killed herself. Would, one day, his father finally notice him in a good way? Maybe they could become a real family, then; one like Kate's family. Painfully, he thought that if there had been someone with a camera in his previous house, taking pictures of every event or moment, like with Kate and her family, then _his_ album would've been full of pictures of him being beaten down, belted and thrown into the dark, scary cellar of their house.

That thought made him snicker bitterly and if he'd been just a bit less lost in those hurtful thoughts and memories, he would've noticed Kate coming back to her room; but he didn't notice her until she was suddenly in his face, snatching the album out of his hands and pushing him away forcefully.

Kate, upon entering her room, had found Tony with her photo album in his hands and saw the smirk on his face; she didn't realize it wasn't out of malice, though; she was too young to notice that kind of things and so, automatically, she'd assumed that this was part of their prank war and that Tony was doing something to her photos. It angered her so much that she couldn't even see the startled, scared look that crossed Tony's face when she took the album away from him. She just used all her power and pushed Tony away; feeling pleased when he hit his head against the corner of her bed.

 _'Good, he deserved it.'_ She thought as she stood there and watched him with disdain.

"I hate you." She snapped at him. "How dare you touch my photo album?"

Tony was still too shaken to respond.

And Kate was too angry to stop and see that Tony hadn't done anything to her pictures. "Is this a joke to you? You think it's funny to mess with my family photos? How could you be so mean and annoying? No wonder your family didn't want you and threw you out." She didn't know much about Tony's past; all she knew was that Abby's parents had died, but Tony's parents just hadn't wanted him, so the Gibbs had adopted him.

Tony was so shocked that he couldn't open his mouth and say that he'd just been _looking_ at those photos and had never wanted to do anything to them, and then Kate had said those things about his family not wanting him, which were ironically the very same thoughts that had run through his head when he'd been looking at Kate's photos and he just suddenly felt so broken and dejected.

Kate saw the hurt look on Tony's face and took satisfaction in it. "That's right. I know your real parents didn't want you. Of course you wouldn't understand what family means, but just because you've never been wanted, it doesn't mean everyone is like you. Unlike you, _I_ have a family; my own real mom and dad who love me and I will not let you touch my photos and ruin my memories with them. Soon, my mom will be OK again and I'll go back to live with my family. My real family; people who _want_ me and actually love me. What are _you_ gonna do? You have to _always_ stay here and pretend like the Gibbs are your real family; like they haven't just felt sorry for you when your own family threw you out of their house. That's right; they just felt bad for you and since they're really nice people, they couldn't let you become a street kid; that doesn't make you their son and that doesn't make them your real family. You're so annoying that no one will ever really want you; everyone will at the end see what your mom and dad saw in you and then they'd want to get rid of you, too." The hateful words were just pouring out of her mouth and she wasn't even thinking about them; it was one of her bad habits that her dad had always warned her about; he'd always told her that she'd inherited it from him and so she should be very careful what she said and should never speak when she was angry; because when she was really angry she'd say things that she probably didn't mean at all and those words would just hurt the others. But she couldn't stop herself; so she let her anger out and enjoyed it as Tony lost the color in his face and felt triumphant when by the end of her spiteful rant, the boy stood up and shakily, ran out of her room.

It was then that she noticed Abby standing in the doorway; the younger girl's eyes were as big as saucers and unshed tears had made them really shiny. All that the horrified little girl could utter was: "I hate you. You're so mean." And then she, too, had run out.

Abby went straight to Tony's room; she wanted to tell him that what Kate had said wasn't true and that Tony now had a real family that loved him and would always want him; but all that left her mouth was Tony's name in a whispered tone when she found him hunched in the corner of his room.

Walking to her brother, she quietly sat down by his side and was happy when Tony put an arm around her shoulders. " _I_ will always love you, Tony."

She didn't see how watery Tony's smile was, but felt glad when Tony murmured a thank you. "I wasn't messing with her photos; you know that, right?" He added quietly. "I was just looking at them."

She looked up at him with big eyes.

"I was just thinking how lucky she is when she came back to her room and got mad at me."

"She's so _mean_. I _hate_ her." Abby muttered in a small voice.

Tony squeezed her arm gently. "She was just upset I touched her photos."

"But, Tony! It was really mean to say those things. And it wasn't just about you. My mommy and daddy left me, too. Just because she still has a mommy and daddy doesn't mean she can be mean to us."

"Abs, your mom and dad didn't leave you because they hated you; you know that, right?" Tony was worried that Abby had been thinking differently all this time and had just hidden it. "They'd have never left you if they could help it."

Abby's lower lip was trembling. "They still left."

"Not because they didn't love you. I bet they still love you and watch over you from Heaven." He insisted firmly.

If Tony said those things, then they must be true; because Abby was pretty sure Tony knew _every_ thing and she always believed anything he said. "OK; but your mommy is in Heaven, too. She'll watch over you, too."

Tony wasn't so sure about it, though; because even before she killed herself, his mother didn't care much about Tony. She was always drunk and kept telling him that he needed to learn not to be in the way all the damn time. "She didn't really like me when she was alive." He said quietly. "Kate's right. My real family didn't want me and that's why I'm here. But it's not the same for you."

Forcefully, Abby said, "Kate is _not_ right." OK, so maybe she didn't _always_ believe Tony; just most of the times; because Tony was usually wrong about himself. "And you have a family now and I love you."

"Thanks, Abs. I'm lucky to have you." Tony smiled again.

Kate's scream made them both jump.

"Oh! I left one of the jars of your spiders in her room." He winced. "Gotta go and get it."

"I will." Abby said quickly and jumped up to go before Tony could. "And I promise, I'll never play with her again."

"No, Abby!" Tony's eyes widened. "She's your friend. It's OK. You can-"

"You are my brother. I love you. I don't need a friend when I have _you_. I don't want to play with her. She can go play with her _real family_." She said stubbornly and went to collect her spider from the older girl's room.

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 **TBC ...**

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 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	4. Choose Your Family Wisely - 2

That night when the parents got home they felt the heavy atmosphere, which really didn't take a genius to notice; the kids weren't playing; they weren't talking to each other and while it might seem normal between Tony and Kate after a prank, it wasn't like Abby not to talk or play with them; although, it seemed more like Tony wasn't in the mood to play with Abby -or at all- than the other way around if the way she was clinging to Tony was anything to go by. Kate, on the other hand, looked upset that Abby wouldn't even look her way and kept giving Tony the evil eye.

Both Shannon and Gibbs wondered if the kids had gone too far with their jokes, but decided to give them some time and space and see if they'd resolve their problems themselves; but the following night they both came home to the same situation and even though the kids seemed civil enough to answer their questions and not snap at each other, something seemed totally off. Especially since the sweet, happy Abby always kept wrinkling her nose when Kate talked and Tony seemed to be pulling away from everyone except Abby.

Before saying goodnight to Kate, Gibbs asked her if everything was alright, while Shannon did the same with Tony and both kids had answered the same way; that there was no problem at all; the only difference was that Kate had sounded defiant when she uttered those words, while Tony had been clearly subdued and quiet, worried that he wouldn't be believed and therefore scolded.

There was only one way to find out the truth. Abby was clearly the only one who knew everything and if she was taking Tony's side, then there was a good chance that Kate had done something to cause the distress; now they just had to find out what had happened and whether or not anyone was at fault.

The talk with Abby had been enlightening, yet very shocking; the little girl had told them everything she'd heard and seen and then had put her own two cents, claiming that Kate should go live with her own family if she thought it was so bad here and if she wanted to hurt them because they didn't have real moms and dads anymore. The young parents had of course calmed her down and told her that of course Abby and Tony had real parents, too and she should never doubt that or their love for her and Tony.

They'd never thought that Kate would be capable of spitting such hurtful words and decided that she must be under more stress than she was letting on, regarding her sick mother and being forced to stay away from her family; that didn't give her a free pass to snap at people and certainly it didn't mean she could say things like that to Tony. True, she didn't know what Tony had been through, but somehow Gibbs and Shannon, both thought that even if she'd known, she probably would've used them against Tony, as well.

"Should we talk to her, first? Or to Tony?" Gibbs asked his wife, that night; knowing that she always had the best solutions.

"God, what a mess." She blurted out instead of giving an answer.

"Hmm."

"Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we shouldn't have taken Kate in; she's clearly having a hard time dealing with being away from her mom and dad and can't understand that things aren't the same here as they were in her home."

Jethro shook his head. "Well, she's here now and I don't think we made a mistake; they needed to be sure she's safe and taken care of while they concentrate on Melisa's treatment."

"Yeah." She sighed. "But what about Tony? You heard Abby; Tony already thinks it's _his_ fault his parents were such bastards."

Gibbs snorted. "Language."

Shannon rolled her eyes. "Give me a break. We're alone."

Gibbs took a deep breath. "You're right. The poor kid; Kate does have a sharp tongue and I think we should do something about it if she's gonna stay here."

"Yup." She nodded. "We can't tell her the truth about Tony's past, though. It's really not our story to tell and Tony might lose his trust in us if we do; besides, I'm afraid she might use it against him later if she gets angry again."

"But she needs to apologize to Tony." Gibbs frowned.

"So?" She raised an eyebrow. "She's old enough to get how wrong she's been saying those things to Tony, especially since she's accused Tony falsely of messing with her photos."

"So, Kate first, then?"

"Nah. I think we first gotta talk to Tony." Shannon decided. "Although, it sure will take a long time for him to believe what his biological parents did to him hadn't been _his_ fault and only _they_ are to blame for those things."

Sighing, Gibbs let himself fall on his back on their bad and stared at the ceiling of their room. "Somehow I think he'll never really believe it. Call it a gut feeling, but I feel he'll always, deep down, doubt the love of others for him."

The woman winced. "Can't blame him. The crucial years that should've been spent to show him the meaning of unconditional love and support had been spent on telling him he was all alone and not worthy of anyone's time. We were already 6 years too late to get to him."

"At least we've got him now." Gibbs pointed out.

"True and we can't change the past."

"So we work on the present and the future." Gibbs added wisely.

Shannon bent down and kissed her husband. "Glad we've got him now. He deserves the best."

"You mean _us_?" Gibbs laughed and pulled her down to bed by an arm around her neck.

"Well, you know it." She joined him in his laughter.

.

.

"Hey, Son. How you doing?" Gibbs asked as he opened the door to his son's room and entered, being followed by his wife. They'd both just gotten back home from work and Elise, their babysitter was still downstairs with Kate while Abby stayed in her room to play with her spiders.

Looking up with confusion from the book he was reading, Tony eyed his parents. "I'm... fine. Thanks?"

Shannon gave a little chuckle. "Yeah, it's kinda weird, isn't it?"

"What?" Gibbs frowned.

"Come on; if my parents came to my room like this when I was a kid, I'd be sure that they wanted something. Like, there was this time that they wanted to talk to me about... Umm, about where babies come from and God I was 15! I knew those things already and well, let's say it was very awkward."

Gibbs laughed out loud, but Tony looked horrified.

"Is that what you wanna talk about?" He gulped. "Please don't. I know where babies come from. Please don't talk about it."

Both parents laughed at his horrified expression before they realized what he'd said.

"What?"... "You _know_ where babies come from?" They asked in unison; now it was their turn to look aghast.

"Where? How?" Jethro asked further, sounding appalled.

"Where they come _from_?" Tony grimaced and hoped they weren't actually asking _that_ to make sure he knew where babies came from.

"Shit, no!" Gibbs exclaimed hurriedly, not sure how their discussion had gotten so out of hand.

"How do you know it? You're just 7, Tony!" Shannon clarified, looking disturbed that his son knew things like that at such a young age.

"I... Umm, my father told me."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose comically. "Your..." He trailed off; he was pretty sure that DiNozzo Sr. had never had a normal conversation with his son and yet he'd told him about _this_?

Shannon was pretty confused too.

Tony sighed and looked embarrassed; he knew he had to explain now, even though he really hated to talk about the kinda things that had happened in that house, "I... I once walked... I was 5. One night, I was thirsty so I woke up to go get some water and I saw my father with a woman in the hallway. They were... I... They-" He stammered quietly, looking away from his parents. "They didn't care that I was there and I was scared and I wanted to go back to my room, but he... he was drunk, and he kinda told me that that's how babies are produced if you're not careful and said I was a mistake because he hadn't been careful and... And then he made me watch them because I was supposed to learn it so that... So when I grow up I won't screw up like he had before me." He was now looking down, feeling once again grossed out and wished he could unsee and unhear everything from that night. He'd gotten sick and hadn't been able to sleep or eat for days and it'd taken a severe beating from his father to bring him out of his funk, or well, force him out of it.

Both Gibbs and Shannon looked disgusted at hearing that. They knew their son had been through hell, but to expose him to that kind of thing at 5? It pretty much counted as sexual abuse.

"Oh, God! Baby, I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Shannon pulled her son to herself and hugged him tightly.

Gibbs got up and started to pace up and down the room, trying to bring his anger under control; he wished he could just find the bastard who was Tony's biological father and break every single bone in his body and leave him for a slow, painful death.

Tony, from where he was being squeezed by his mom, eyed his dad and wondered if he was mad at him.

Shannon felt Tony's doubt and fear and quietly murmured reassuring words to him. "It's OK, baby. Your dad is just thinking about what to do to your biological father for hurting you."

Tony gasped. "You're not gonna kill him, are you?"

"Hurting others is never right, but just this once, I will if you want me to." Gibbs said it with a tight smile, but he meant every word.

"No." Tony shook his head vigorously. "Then you'll go to jail. And he's strong, what if he hurts you?"

"Oh, you're saying I can't take him?" Gibbs sat down on Tony's bed and gave him a mock-hurt look.

"He was bigger." Tony shrugged.

Gibbs seemed to consider it and then shrugged. "But, I'm better trained." He sounded very proud of himself.

Tony smiled at his dad's antics and the smile loosened the knot in Gibbs' chest.

"Come here, Son."

Shannon let go of him so he could go to his dad.

Tony walked to him and sat beside the man on the bed.

"Like I said, hurting people is never alright; but some people don't deserve to see the light of day, and your biological father is one of them. We're sorry you had to live with him for years."

Tony looked down and shrugged. "It was bad for him, too. He didn't want me."

"Well, it's his loss. We've already agreed that he's cruel and very very _very_ stupid. But at least because of his stupidity, we got to have an amazing son like you."

Tony looked up to see if the man he now thought of as his dad meant what he'd said and he saw nothing but kindness and sincerity in his eyes. That brought a shy smile to his face.

Shannon didn't want to ruin the moment, so she got up to go get the dinner ready, but before leaving the room, she bent down and kissed Tony's hair. "You made us a real family. Thank you, Tony."

"Dad? Can I ask you something?" He asked once they were alone; he needed to ask this question, but he didn't want to embarrass himself too much, so he preferred to ask it from just one of his new parents.

"Sure. Go ahead." Gibbs replied and readied himself like he was about to be tested. "Make it easy, though. I haven't had enough coffee, today. I can't answer complicated questions."

Tony chuckled, thankful that Gibbs was trying to make it easy for him. "I... You..."

"OK, you don't have to make it _that_ easy." Gibbs smiled, gently pushing his son to ask his question without being so worried.

"Did you take me in because you felt sorry for me?" He finally asked and then looked down.

Gibbs winced slightly; after talking to Abby, he knew this had come to Tony's mind from what Kate had said. "What?" He feigned shock, though; no need for Tony to think they'd prepared their answers beforehand. Knowing him, he'd think that they didn't mean it if their answers weren't spontaneous. "Where has _that_ come from?"

Tony just shrugged.

OK, so he wasn't going to rat Kate out. Good boy. Gibbs silently approved. "Of course not. Wait, did you accept us as your parents out of pity?"

Tony frowned with confusion. He wasn't sure how that worked. "I... No. It's not like I chose you."

"Well, we were childless; we desperately wanted a son like you; you could've felt sorry for this poor childless couple and let them adopt you and then called them mom and dad just to make them happy." Gibbs reasoned, sounding serious.

Tony thought about it; it sounded weird; kinda. But Tony loved Gibbs and Shannon; he hadn't felt sorry for them. "You were desperate?"

Gibbs sighed and looked forlorn. "Very. We didn't know what we were supposed to do if you had said no to us. You didn't know? Does that mean you didn't do it out of pity?"

Tony shook his head. "It really doesn't work like that, Dad." he smiled nevertheless. "Thanks, though."

Gibbs smiled back. "No, son, thank _you_. You might not think it, but it does work like that. You could've refused to accept us as your parents; you could be living with us, but not see us as your family; you could refuse to call us mom and dad. So, you see? You' _ve_ let us in."

"But you're the best parents any kid could have." Tony stated honestly, not getting how his dad thought there was a way they could be rejected as anyone's parents.

"And _you_ are the best son anyone could wish for."

"My real parents didn't want me, though. They knew I was worthless. My dad threw me out."

"No, Tony. They didn't know _anything_ at all. They didn't know what it means to be a family; what it means to be parents and what it means to love someone. They were miserable. And just because they were sick in the head and couldn't understand or appreciate the gift they'd been given, it doesn't mean that _you_ 'd done something wrong or that anything had been wrong with _you_. You're precious and you're part of our family now and like your mom just said, _you_ made us a real family. So, don't ever think that those people knew anything. Besides, we're way wiser and cooler and _we_ say you're amazing. Which one of us are you gonna believe?"

Tony grinned, but then again the grin faded slightly. "So, you're not gonna get rid of me when you get tired of me?"

Quietly praying for patience so he wouldn't go and actually murder Tony's father or go and snap at Kate, Gibbs squeezed Tony's shoulder. "First of all, we're never gonna get tired of you; we might all get frustrated with each other; because that's what happens in a family; people frustrate each other and then they remember good moments and move on and create more of those good moments together; but they never get tired of each other. And second, get rid of? What are you? A shirt? You're already getting bigger than me..." He paused and regarded Tony. "OK, no, that's not true; it probably won't happen for a few more years; thank God! But yeah, you know what I mean."

Tony chuckled happily. It was good to know that he, too, had a real family. Kate had been wrong; he didn't need to pretend; he was already with his family and had a mom and dad and an amazing little sister who loved him as much as he loved them.

"Thanks for not letting me become a street kid." He said as Gibbs stood up and took his hand so they could go have dinner.

Hiding his wince with a snort, Gibbs said, "If we haven't seen you first, another couple would've snatched you. Believe me, Son, we just won the prize." He stated firmly and his chest swelled with pride and happiness when Tony squeezed his hand tightly.

A crisis had been averted and Gibbs was truly delighted about it; now if only he could also erase the images of the abuse that the boy had suffered from his own mind and of course from Tony's mind, that'd be perfect; and he was sure that there were still things in Tony's past that the boy hadn't told anyone about. He wished he could took them away, too; because if what had just been revealed minutes ago about how Tony had found out about sex was anything to go by, then things were a lot worse in Tony's head than they'd first anticipated. But well, they couldn't take away every problem all at once; thankfully, this time, they'd been successful and hopefully they'd be every other time, as well. Tony was theirs now and Gibbs knew they all cared too much about that kid to let anything happen to him, physically or emotionally.

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 **To be concluded...  
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 ** _Thanks for your reviews and support. Share your thoughts with me?_**

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	5. Choose Your Family Wisely - 3

_**A/N: A short chapter to just wrap up this story with a more determined ending.  
**_

* * *

"Hey, Kate. Can we talk to you?" Shannon poked her head inside the young girl's room, later that night.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." She shrugged as she walked away from the window, where she was standing and eyeing the rain; and sat straight on her bed.

Shannon went to the bed to sit beside her while Gibbs turned her chair around and sat down.

"So, how's everything?" Gibbs asked, not sure how to start this conversation; in a way, it was much harder than the one they'd had with Tony; they didn't want to hurt Kate's feeling or pride but they knew she needed to learn a lesson there and teaching a lesson was always harder for parents than many other things.

"Good, I guess. I talked to my Dad today and he said I could go visit my mom this weekend."

"Oh, that's great. I'm happy for you." Shannon smiled genuinely.

"Thanks." She smiled.

As Gibbs and Shannon exchanged a look, silently asking each other to talk first, Kate got bored and started the conversation herself.

"Look, guys... Umm, is this about my fight with Tony? I mean I know you've noticed. I didn't want to say anything and I don't know what he's told you, but what happened was his own fault; I swear. He shouldn't have snooped around in my room. He deserved it." She crossed her arms defiantly and held her chin up.

Sometimes Gibbs felt that this girl was a tad too confident and too full of herself; but well, she was just a kid and it wasn't exactly up to him to teach her right from wrong or how to feel about herself. So, he kept that opinion to himself; what he couldn't keep to himself was his disappointment for the way she'd treated his son.

"So, he deserved to hear that he's worthless and no one wants him?" He frowned. "You saying that it was actually his own fault for not having a caring family before coming to us?"

"Well..." She trailed off and finally seemed to be losing a bit of her attitude.

"You told him he has no real family."

"He doesn't." She whispered.

"What are we then?" Gibbs frowned.

"Kate, do you think you had any hand in choosing your family?" Shannon took over; asking kindly but firmly. "That if you were born to the family that Tony was born to, they'd have loved you but would've still hated Tony and would've thrown him out anyway? Or are you suggesting that if Tony had been born to _your_ mom and dad, they, too, would've thrown him out and couldn't love him?"

Gibbs jumped in. "Or maybe you believe that if he'd been our biological son; because he already is our _real_ son; but do you think if he'd been born here things would've been different than how they are now?"

"I... No. No, that's not what I meant." She shook her head, looking between the two grownups, finally starting to realize how her words had sounded to the others.

"Then how exactly has Tony deserved any of the things you've said?" Gibbs's eyes bore into her. "And before you put it on Tony, _he_ didn't say anything to us; Abby did."

"He was messing with my photos." She defended herself weakly.

"Abby also said that Tony has done nothing to your photos and that he'd just been looking at them because he'd found them nice; because he hadn't had the kind of growing up that you have; that's why he found it interesting and wanted to see how it'd been for you."

Kate looked down; she hadn't known that; she hadn't let Tony explain and had just snapped at him. She could clearly hear her dad's voice in her head, saying _'told you so.'_

"I should've asked him first. I just thought..." She trailed off.

"Yes, honey! You really should've asked." Shannon nodded and then put an arm around her shoulders. "Kate, we understand that you miss your home and your mom and dad and that this is really hard for you; but you gotta know that you can't say things to people just because you're having a hard time. It's not Tony's fault that you have to stay away from your family; just like it hasn't been his fault that his parents had been stupid enough to not want him."

The girl nodded and muttered an apology.

"Also, you don't really know anything about Tony and his past; so, please keep your opinion about his family to yourself." Gibbs added sternly. "Tony's a great boy and he _does_ have a family that loves him; _us_. We love him and we'd appreciate it if you didn't make him doubt us and the love that we have for him. He's our son in any sense that you're your father's daughter. You getting what I mean?"

Kate nodded again; this time feeling really ashamed for the things she'd said. "I really am sorry." She said again. "My father always tells me that I open my mouth and say things without thinking when I'm angry."

"And I bet he tells you that it's not a good trait."

"Yes." She sounded well-chastised.

"You know what you gotta do?" Shannon probed gently.

Kate swallowed before saying, "I have to apologize to Tony, right?"

"That'd be a great thing to do; yes." She nodded encouragingly. "You two are gonna live together for a while longer yet and I'm sure you'd rather be able to play with him than having to just sit here and read your books or look out the window at the empty street."

"He is kinda fun to play with when he doesn't play jokes." She stated quietly.

"I'm sure he thinks the same way about you."

"Do you think he'll forgive me?"

"He's the most forgiving person I know." Gibbs stated with certainty and then smiled, "and that includes everyone in this house."

Shannon laughed at hearing that, knowing what her husband was getting at. "Yeah, he's definitely more forgiving than you are!"

"I meant you, Lady!" Jethro said indignantly, but then shrugged and laughed along. "But yeah, guess, you've got a point."

Kate watched them bantering easily and smiled; glad to be forgiven by the adults; getting up, she went to Tony's room to talk to him.

She'd been wrong; Tony hadn't deserved the things she'd said; not even if he'd been messing with her photos. And she knew that after this, she had to apologize to Abby, too and despite the age difference, she knew it'd be much harder to make Abby forgive her.

Gibbs and Shannon followed her outside and watched as she knocked and entered Tony's room; they'd done their part and the outcome seemed to be acceptable. So, happily, they laced their fingers together and walked down the stairs to grab two soothing cups of coffee in the comfortable silence.

Their home would soon be a roaring war zone again; what else could they ask for?

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 **The End...**

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 _ **A/N: Again, that's it for this one.**_ ** _The next chapter will have a new storyline._**

 _ **Let me know what you think?**_

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	6. I still Remember How to Be a Good Boy-1

_**A/N: So, I'm back with another story in this universe; in this one Tim hasn't come to Gibbs' house yet; so it's just the girls and Tony, again.**_

 _ **Also, this is probably gonna be a 4 chapter story and hopefully, I'll be able to post a chapter every two weeks, at most. Sorry for the long gap between this story and the last one. Hope you like where this one goes.  
**_

 _ **.**_

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 **\- I still Remember How to Be a Good Boy -**

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Leroy Jethro Gibbs was pissed off, exhausted and impatient beyond belief.

Sometimes, Shannon wondered if it'd be better if they'd just had one child and had never opened their door to any guests, because clearly there was a limit to Jethro's patience and she hated to admit it, but she'd been aware of it from the very beginning.

Oh, Jethro was a great man and very kind at heart; he cared about her and the kids so much that it sometimes worried Shannon, because she didn't know what the man would do if anything happened to any of them and that scared her since she loved him and didn't want him to lose himself if anything bad happened to the ones he loved; but then there were times that she was sure that her husband wouldn't want anything more than going back to active duty so that he could get the hell away from them.

Sighing, she prayed for more patience with her husband who was now pretty much a ticking bomb. She knew the current case that he and his team were working on was a bad one and that it was affecting Jethro and his mood, and she was aware that the kids' nonstop bickering and noises were getting on his nerves, but what was she supposed to do? Other than being patient with all of them, that is!

Gibbs needed to get over it and remember that kids were kids; they didn't have an on-off switch so he could turn them off whenever he was tired.

It pained her that the man was taking his frustration on the kids and mostly on Tony; just because he was the only boy in the house and Gibbs couldn't raise his voice to any little girl, didn't mean the little boy had to bear the brunt of Jethro's ire. And frankly, she was getting tired of being on damage control; whenever Gibbs threw an angry glare towards Tony or snapped at him, she had to quickly take control and remind their son that it was alright, his dad hadn't meant it and he was just tired and thankfully, so far, Tony had accepted all her excuses and after some minutes of silence he'd bounce back.

She really hoped that the case Gibbs and his team were working on would be closed sooner; she hated snapping at her husband and she felt she was getting closer and closer to doing that with the way Jethro was behaving.

That night, after they sent the kids to their beds and were finally alone, she was again trying to be the voice of reason and defuse the situation before the man did something he'd no doubt regret later.

"It's not _my_ fault, Shan." Gibbs hissed, sounding hurt and annoyed that the woman was accusing him of being short-tempered. "That boy is getting out of hand; I'm telling you. I think we've given him too much leeway and it's time we stopped."

She frowned. "He's just a little boy, Jethro; he's _supposed_ to be always active and playful."

"And mischievous and annoying and loud and everything else? For the love of God, Shannon, the boy never shuts up and would it actually hurt him to, once in a while, play in his room and not drive everyone in this house crazy? He's not the only one living here, but he acts like he is and I'm telling you it's _our_ fault; we tried to make him come out of his shell and to do so we let him do whatever he wanted without any repercussions and now he's taking advantage of it; that boy is devil."

"Whoa there." Shannon's eyes had widened. "First of all, keep your voice down; second of all, what the hell? What's this coming from?"

Taking a deep breath, Jethro looked away. "I'm just tired; I wish he'd shut up; I wish he'd go back to the way he was the days after we'd just brought him home; he was all quiet and good, back then; nothing like... like _this_. We didn't sign up for _this,_ Shannon. I'm not sure I can deal with this much longer."

"Speak for yourself;" Now she was getting angry, "I've very much signed up for this and much more; I love seeing him happy."

"You saying you wouldn't like it if we had some quiet? Without always having to worry about what the hell that boy is up to?"

Well, she didn't exactly mind some quiet, but that didn't mean she wanted her son to be all withdrawn again; and she said so, quietly.

"Maybe we made a mistake;" Jethro groaned. "Sometimes I think we shouldn't have adopted him; things would've been much easier; he's too much."

She gasped; "You don't mean it. You're just tired now."

Shrugging, he said, "Don't know. All I know is that I'm tired of all the trouble he makes. I just wish I could come to a quiet home after a hectic and crazy day at work."

"Well, maybe _you_ 're the problem, then." She snapped angrily. "If you hate it this much, maybe you should go away and find a quiet home." With that she stood up and left their room. She'd had enough of it.

Jethro sat there with a lax jaw; he'd never seen his wife that mad and after a couple of minutes of thinking, he realized that he couldn't blame her; what the hell was wrong with him? Maybe she was right; maybe he _was_ the problem; he loved his kids; he loved seeing Tony happy and laughing and free; what the hell was he thinking saying those things about his boy? God, he was an awful father to even think those things. Thank God he hadn't said anything to the boy himself; he didn't think he could live with himself if he hurt his little boy like that; especially after the life Tony'd had in his first house with his biological parents.

Unbeknown to the both adults; a small figure stood very still, in the shadow in the hallway and wondered what he should do next. The little boy had had a bad dream and had gotten up to go get some water and the angry muttering coming from his parents' room had stopped him on his way.

He hadn't mean to eavesdrop, but the situation had been too similar to the times with his real mother and father and the memory of those days had him frozen in his place and involuntarily he'd heard everything that had been exchanged in his adoptive parents' room; he'd heard how the man he looked up to and loved more than anything in the world hated him and regretted taking him into his house; he'd heard how tired the man was of him, and in his childish world, it only meant that everything his real father had said to him and about him had been true. He _was_ a nuisance that no one needed or wanted and he had to be punished for coming to this world and ruining everyone's life.

Biting his lip, Tony quickly tiptoed to his room and buried himself under his blanket and pillow, hoping that he wouldn't make a sound to alert the others; he'd been the cause of enough trouble in this house. He needed to be better or Gibbs would send him away and he didn't know where he'd go if they didn't want him here and it scared him more than his father's beating and hurtful words ever did.

He needed to become a good boy again; Gibbs was right, he'd become really annoying and loud and... And devilish. He had to stop being bad. Gibbs had said that he wished Tony would be as quiet as the day he'd been adopted and that he wouldn't make so much trouble; Tony could do that; he knew how to; he'd just forgotten how important it was to do it. But from now on, he'd become the boy his real father had taught him to be. Senior had never liked him; not even when he'd been quiet; but maybe that'd be enough for Gibbs, because he didn't know how to be more than quiet or to be enough; the only way to be perfect for his father had been if he didn't exist, at all and that'd been why he'd left his father's home in the first place; well, that and that Senior had scared him more than ever that night; anyway, he hoped he didn't have to leave here, too and that just being unheard and unseen would be good enough here. He liked it in Gibbs' house; they never hurt him, so he really wanted to stay if they'd let him.

.

The next morning, Shannon was trying hard not to give her husband the cold shoulder in front of the kids, but she was having a hard time not doing just that; because as much as the girls were busy talking about their dreams and everything that came to their minds, Tony was quiet and seemed like he was watching them carefully. He was sharp and always felt it way before the others when something was wrong and both Gibbs and Shannon knew he could always sense the tension between them; so they attempted to act normal around each other; even though Shannon was still mad and Jethro was quite regretful, struggling to find a way to show his remorse without actually apologizing and therefore getting the kids' attention.

Giving up, he finally kissed his wife on the cheek, patted the kids on the back or ruffling their hair; not noticing when Tony'd little body stiffened at the touch; and left the house to get to work.

Shannon had the day off, so the kids didn't need a babysitter that day and usually it meant something special after their dinner since she was home and could bake something to go with the dinner.

After breakfast, Abby and Kate quickly ran out to the back yard to play with their dolls and Shannon expected Tony to either go and tease them for it or go play with his toys while watching some cartoons on TV; so, she was surprised when the boy quietly asked if she needed help cleaning the kitchen.

Finding that a bit odd, she smiled and accepted the help; hoping that whatever was bothering her son would come out during their time together. Maybe Tony had had a bad night again; they'd finally managed to get him to talk about his nightmares with them and although it still wasn't a regular occurrence, he'd sometimes open up to her or Jethro; so maybe that was why he'd offered to help, so that he could find a way to talk.

When they boy didn't speak a word after ten minutes of cleaning the table and putting the dishes away, Shannon decided to prod a little. "Did you sleep well, last night?"

She watched as her question startled Tony, like he hadn't expected to be addressed. The boy looked up at her and smiled slightly, a smile that was so artificial that actually caught Shannon by surprise; she hadn't seen that smile on the boy's face in a long time.

"Yes." That was Tony's short response. Nothing further.

Blinking with confusion, she wondered how Tony's night had actually been. Now she was pretty sure that her son had had a nightmare the night before; but maybe he wasn't ready to talk about it and they'd learned not to push him if that was the case.

"Good." She smiled kindly and tried to hide her concern. "Thanks for helping me here. You're an amazing son." She added for good measure, knowing that he did need to hear a word of praise every now and then and these days, she was the only one handing them out. "Why don't you go play or watch something on TV?"

Tony seemed to be wanting to say something else, but he nodded instead and quickly left; not running out like he'd usually do, just walking out quickly; with his head hanging low.

Shannon decided to give him some time; he was good at dealing with his emotions and she was sure that whatever was bothering him would be resolved by noon, or night at the latest. Tony was resilient and she loved it about him; a nightmare wouldn't be able to keep him down; not even if the nightmare was an actual memory from his earlier years.  
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 **TBC ...**

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 ** _So, what do you think?_**

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	7. I still Remember How to Be a Good Boy-2

_**A/N:**_ _I'm sorry for the two weeks gap between the chapters. I promise to post sooner (like this time) if I find the time to write and proofread.  
_

 _ **Thank you all for your support and your comments**. Special thanks to **Anya, Phoenix Red Lion, Carol and Luthorchickv2** , since I couldn't respond to their comments directly._

 _Yes, **Anya** , at least here Gibbs is not against apologizing.  
_

 _Well, **Phoenix Red Lion** ; Tony can't help it; he is scared now and he's just retreated into himself; that's why he's not subdued just around Gibbs._

* * *

 _Shannon decided to give him some time; he was good at dealing with his emotions and she was sure that whatever was bothering him would be resolved by noon, or night at the latest. Tony was resilient and she loved it about him; a nightmare wouldn't be able to keep him down; not even if the nightmare was an actual memory from his earlier years._

* * *

Whatever that was bothering her son wasn't resolved by noon, though and neither it was by night. Throughout the day, Tony stayed in his room, and only left when Shannon sent Abby to call him for lunch. She was sure that the boy hadn't even left his room to go to the bathroom more than once.

When he arrived home, that night, Gibbs was surprised to find the house actually quiet. He was dead tired and was supporting a bruised cheek from when a perp had punched him; but despite those things, he was content because the case was closed successfully and justice had been served.

He'd bought a bouquet of flowers for Shannon to make it up for his last night's angry rants and was ready to face the noises inside his house with a smile on his face; so you can imagine his surprise when he walked in and found the place quiet. It wasn't eerily quiet; no, he could hear the sound of Abby and Kate's giggling coming from the stairway and Shannon seemed to be in the kitchen setting the table from the sound of it; but it still was quiet for _his_ house. Usually, when he arrived home, the TV would be on with no one in front of it; the kids were running around or Tony's voice would be heard arguing with Kate while Abby tried to jump in their discussions or Tony would be talking nonstop about something with his mom; but that night he couldn't hear any of those things; so he called out that he was home and felt his chest swell with happiness when Abby ran down the stairs to hug him and Kate followed to greet him with a smile.

Shannon came out of the kitchen and although the happy spark was missing from her eyes, which Gibbs suspected was the result of their last night argument; her smile was there, bright and happy. She even tilted her head and raised an eyebrow when she spotted the flowers and shook her head when she kissed him on the cheek and gently touched his bruised face to make sure he was alright.

Yes, all seemed to be good with them. Gibbs sighed happily as he followed the woman to the kitchen.

"So, where's Tony?" He figured if the little guy's voice wasn't echoing in the house and he hadn't run to greet him happily, he must be out; maybe he'd found a friend and was sleeping over.

Shannon's happy smile dropped from her beautiful face. "In his room."

Gibbs had to take a couple of seconds to digest that. "What?"

"You heard me."

"What's he done?" He automatically jumped to the wrong conclusion; assuming that he'd done something wrong and Shannon had sent him to his room.

However, instead of sighing and confirming his suspicions, she glared at him, "Nothing. He has barely left his room the whole day."

Gibbs frowned but then groaned, "God help us! I bet he's up to something terrible."

"Hey." Shannon sounded irritated, even though her voice was low. "Would you stop criticizing him so much? Why are you so hard on him? He's not up to anything and when has he ever done something terrible, anyway?"

"Honey, I didn't mean it that way." He was taken aback by the fire in her eyes.

"No? Then why did you say it?"

"It just came out." He said apologetically. "Shannon, I love Tony; I didn't mean it like he causes trouble."

"Oh, excuse me for thinking you did mean that after saying those things last night."

"I'm sorry for last night." Gibbs sighed, "Shouldn't have said those things. I didn't mean any of them. I don't even know where they were coming from. You know it!"

She shrugged.

"Come on. You know I love having him here with us. He's my son and I wouldn't trade him with anything in this world."

"You still shouldn't have said those things."

"I know and I'm so so sorry. Forgive me?"

"Only if you promise that it'll never happen again."

"Cross my heart."

"What if you've snapped at Tony with things like that when you were that angry, Jethro?" She shook her head, sounding and looking disappointed.

Averting his gaze, Gibbs sighed, "I know what you mean; I just keep thanking my lucky stars that it happened then in the dark of our room."

"You gotta do something about your anger." She stated firmly. "The kids don't deserve to be your target when you have a bad day."

"I'll... I-" Gibbs swallowed. "I swear I didn't mean to-..." he couldn't find the right words.

"I know, Jethro." She stroked his cheek with her thumb. "We've got kids now, though and we gotta work harder to fix our issues."

"I'm trying."

"Well, you gotta try harder." She shrugged. "And you gotta listen to me more often."

"I already do that all the time!" The man almost whined.

"Yeah? Well, then the next time I tell you to shut it, you'll shut it and take yourself and your anger out of my house and away from my kids. Capisce?"

"The doghouse used to be just the couch." Jethro's shoulders slumped.

"And there used to be just the two of us." She rolled her eyes.

Jethro pondered that and then nodded. "I like that we're a bigger family, now."

"So do I!"

"So..." Jethro smiled. "I just need to listen better next time?"

"Yup."

"Got it."

"And maybe you could take some time and talk to Tony? He's been really quiet today. I'm worried about him."

"So he really hasn't left his room?"

Shaking her head, she said, "Not since lunch, and even then I had to send Abby to get him. After lunch, he stayed long enough to clean the table and help with the dishes but then he went to his room and had been there ever since."

Gibbs knew it wasn't a good sign. "Why don't I go get him for dinner? Maybe he talks to me."

She nodded her head OK. "Don't push him, though."

"I won't." He called over his shoulder as he walked up the stairs to his son's room.

"Tony?" He knocked on the door before opening it, expecting to find Tony either in bed feeling sick -because that'd explain why he'd been so quiet-, or playing with his action figures; but he was surprised when he found the boy sitting on the windowsill, eyes on something outside the window and looking lost in thought.

"What's out there?" He asked as he gently touched his son's shoulder but pulled his hand back quickly when suddenly Tony jumped in his place, looking frightened.

"Hey, hey, calm down, son. It's just me." He realized that Tony hadn't heard him entering his room. Shannon was right; something was bothering their little boy if he'd been that lost in thought.

Tony blinked a few times and quickly pulled himself together. "Hi. Sorry; didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, I figured." Gibbs smiled kindly. "What's up, little guy?"

"Um, nothing." Tony swallowed; he looked worried.

"Have you done something?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes playfully; he hadn't meant it seriously and the smile on his face should've given him away, so he was a bit stunned when Tony looked even more terrified.

"No. I swear to God. I've been here all day. You can ask the others."

Gibbs was really confused now. "OK; alright. I was just kidding. You OK, son?"

"Yes."

"You sure? Is there anything you wanna talk about? Did you have a bad dream last night?"

 _Yes, he'd had a bad dream last night. He'd dreamed of being beaten and then thrown out of his house. But this time, not by his real father; this time Gibbs had done those things._ So he just shook his head. He couldn't tell the man about it; Gibbs would be angry; he'd said he wished Tony would just be quiet. "No."

Gibbs wasn't convinced, of course, but he'd promised not to push. "OK. If you're sure?"

Tony nodded.

"Let's go have dinner, huh?" He put a hand on Tony's shoulder and inwardly cringed and silently cursed Tony's real father when the boy's body stiffened under his hand. Squeezing his son's shoulder he led him down the stairs and to the kitchen and quietly shook his head to Shannon's silent inquiry; clearly she wanted to know if he'd been able to get to the root of problem and when he shook his head no; she sighed and smiled down at their son as she put a plate in front of him.

Throughout the dinner, Tony remained quiet; he didn't even look up from his plate and even though Gibbs and Shannon were both listening to Abby and Kate talking about their day, they kept an eye on Tony and watched as he mostly played with his food and remained quiet. He didn't even want cake when Shannon announced that she had made his favorite chocolate cake; he politely thanked her, saying he was full and asked whether he could be excused?

Both parents were shocked, but it was Kate who made it clear it wasn't normal for Tony to turn food down.

"What are you up to, Tony?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "I swear if you're planning something I'll kill you."

Abby giggled, but Tony looked at her with sad eyes and just replied, "OK."

That shocked even Kate to silence.

"Ah, Tony, honey, are you feeling sick?" Shannon asked, kinda hoping that the answer would be yes, because at least then she could do something about it. But Tony quickly said no and once again asked if he could be excused; he even said he could come back to clean the table once they were done eating; but Shannon smiled kindly and said, "No need, sweetie. The girls will do that. You go ahead and get ready for bed. Thanks for your help today." She kissed him on the head.

"We'll be up to say good night, shortly." Gibbs told his son and tried not to sound too worried.

The rest of dinner went by quietly; even Abby and Kate didn't talk much after that. They asked what was wrong; but since no one had an answer, Shannon told them that everything was alright and Tony was probably coming down with something and they should give him some space. The girls nodded and decided to stay away and not bother Tony, so he'd feel better soon.

Gibbs and Shannon both walked to their son's room to wish him a good night, but they found him already in his bed and seemingly asleep; so Shannon kissed his forehead and they quietly left the room.

They couldn't do anything and they were lost; all they could do was to hope that Tony would either talk to them or would be better by the next day.

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 **.**

 **TBC ...**

 **.**

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 ** _Let me know what you think?_**

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	8. I still Remember How to Be a Good Boy-3

**_A/N: Thank you, everyone, for your support and also thank you,_ _Luthorchickv2; Carol; Anya; Sarah; Emma, and the guest reviewers. Your words always help me._**

 ** _Emma, I like your idea a lot; gotta find a way to use it in one of the coming stories. Thanks._**

 ** _Anya, sorry to hear about your surgery; hope you get better soon. I came back as soon as I could, but I was a bit sick myself and it took me a while to be able to sit and finish this chapter. (Also, thank you for rereading my stories in your free time; it makes me so happy.)_**

 ** _I hope you all like this chapter._**

* * *

 _Gibbs and Shannon both walked to their son's room to wish him a good night, but they found him already in his bed and seemingly asleep; so Shannon kissed his forehead and they quietly left the room._

 _They couldn't do anything and they were lost; all they could do was to hope that Tony would either talk to them or would be better by the next day._

* * *

But Tony wasn't better the next day, or the day after that or the one after.

It was a week that Tony had gone back into his shell and nothing seemed to be enough to bring him out. Unfortunately both Gibbs and Shannon were really busy the few days after Tony started to pull away and therefore, they didn't have much time to talk to him to find out what was wrong, either; all they knew was that, these days, if they wanted to see Tony they had to go to his room and to hear his voice they had to address him directly, otherwise the boy would remain quiet and out of sight.

He wouldn't even play; not even when Abby asked him and it'd gotten to the point that even Kate had asked him if he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him. She'd given him multiple reasons to tease her just so that he'd break his silence and get back to his old self, but every time, instead of showing the desired result, Tony had just averted his gaze and remained quiet, looking even more anxious than before.

The whole situation was dampening the girls' enthusiasm, as well. They wouldn't run around anymore and Abby looked always worried about Tony.

Both Shannon and Gibbs were sensing the heavy atmosphere of the house and finally they decided that what they all needed was a day away from home. So, once the weekend arrived, they told the kids that they were going on a picnic and when Abby started to jump up and down and she and Kate rushed to their rooms to get some stuff for the picnic, both parents felt they had done well and had made the right decision; that feeling disappeared, though, once they noticed Tony's faraway look; his reaction to the news, or rather, the _lack_ of it, had confused them.

"Hey, Tones." Shannon ruffled the boy's hair. "Why don't you go grab your baseball and bat so you can play with Jethro in the park?"

Tony looked at her questioningly.

"Umm... Picnic?" Shannon reminded him, laughing kindly; but something in her head screamed about the wrongness of the situation and the look her son was giving her.

Tony looked genuinely surprised. "I'm coming, too?"

That rendered both Shannon and Jethro speechless.

Taking their silence the wrong way, Tony dropped his gaze and said, "It's OK. I'll be fine here. I'll see you when you're back." And quietly but quickly, he left the kitchen.

It took the young parents a couple of minutes to shake themselves out of their stupor and once they did, they were both rushing up the stairs to Tony's room.

"Tony?" Gibbs opened the door to find Tony at his usual spot by the window; the boy's eyes were glassy and there was no trace of any emotion on his face; it was clear that the boy had locked up all his feelings.

Shannon couldn't take it anymore; she walked to him and pulled him into a hug. "Tony; baby, of course you're coming with us. This is a family outing. Why would you even _think_ that you aren't coming?"

Tony remained quiet because he didn't know what to say; was he supposed to answer honestly? Glancing at Gibbs, he got a bit scared when he saw the stormy look on his face; he couldn't possibly know that Gibbs was worried sick about him and that was why he looked so distraught.

The man thought with himself that if it was possible, he'd cancel the picnic and instead would find a way to see what was bothering his son so much; but he'd promised and the girls were really looking forward to the picnic and maybe being away from home would lift Tony's spirits, as well; they had to try.

"Let's go take the stuff to the car; come help me, son." Gibbs smiled, but didn't wait for an answer as he walked away.

Shannon let go of Tony; she knew she wouldn't get anywhere in a few minutes that it'd take for the girls to get ready and she really didn't want to ruin their happiness.

In order to keep the girls' spirits high, the parents didn't address Tony's quietness and down mood again, but by the time the day was over and they got home, they were tired of pretending like everything was fine.

After putting the girls to their beds, they both went to Tony's room to talk to him, but once again found him in his bed, his back to the door and his head buried under the blanket.

Whatever it was that was bothering Tony, clearly wasn't caused by a nightmare or a memory from his past; it'd become clear that, for some reasons, Tony was wary of _them_ and it was disheartening to see how quiet, withdrawn and distant he'd become in the last few days. He was extremely polite; thanked them for the smallest things and helped them with the house chores; but never spoke unless he was addressed and never asked for anything.

Gibbs had started to hate the silence of the house; it wasn't exactly quiet per se, but he missed the chaos that he used to walk into.

"It's true when they say be careful what you wish for." He said quietly as he lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

"What?" Shannon was half listening; her mind already busy with her son's problem.

"Just last week, I was lying here, telling you that I wish I could have some silence in this house; that I wished Tony would be the way he was when we first adopted him." He explained, not noticing the horrified look that had washed over Shannon's features. "I hate it now. I really really hate it."

"O my God, Jethro!"

Her gasp got Gibbs' full attention and he quickly sat up and faced his wife. "What's it? What's wrong, Shan?"

"What's wrong?" Shannon almost screamed and then quickly covered her mouth to stop her voice from rising; in a quiet, but harsh voice, she continued, "What's wrong is that this is all _your_ fault."

"What?"

"Don't look at me like that! You just said it yourself; you wished Tony would become quiet. You said you regretted adopting him. You called him loud and annoying. And now look what's happened!"

"So you're saying it's all happened just because I _wished_ something?" Gibbs snapped. "What, a fairy has heard what I said and has decided to grant me one wish? Grow up, woman! Life is not a fairy tale; things like that don't happen in the real life."

Furious for being mocked like that, Shannon pushed hard against her husband's chest, sending him, consequently, off the bed. "Fuck you! I didn't say it happened _because_ of your wish."

Rubbing his chest and shoulder where he'd hit the floor, Gibbs growled under his breath; he knew better than to say anything when Shannon was that angry with him.

"You said all those things last week and _when_ did Tony start to withdraw from everyone? _When_ did he suddenly become so quiet and distant? _When_ did the spark in his eyes go away?" She asked in a hushed tone. "Let me see... Oh! That's right; the morning after _you_ said those things. The morning after you said you were tired of him and wished you hadn't met him in the first place."

Gibbs was now seeing what his wife was getting at; the look of realization and horror covered his face. "You... You think he's heard me?"

"What other explanation is there?" She asked harshly, blinking quickly to keep the tears at bay. "We both know there's no such thing as a coincidence and Tony's clearly not bothered by his usual bad dreams; he's scared of _us_ ; he gets _surprised_ when we say he's coming to a picnic with us; he gets afraid when _we_ touch him." Grabbing her head in her hands, she rubbed her scalp with the tip of her fingers. "Jesus, Jethro! He _has_ become what he'd been when we first brought him home. He's giving us what you asked for." Her tone was accusatory and she didn't even try to hide it. "There! You got the boy you wished for. Hope you're happy now." With that she got up from the bed and left the room; it took everything she had, not to bang the door when she left.

Jethro was still shocked and horrified at what he'd heard and realized. Shannon was right; this couldn't be a coincidence. Somehow, Tony must've heard him saying those awful things and now, the boy was seeing him in the same light as he saw his real father and so he'd returned to his old self; to what his father had demanded of him; he was becoming unheard and unseen in the house.

Gibbs didn't think he could hate himself more even if he tried. He didn't think he regretted anything else in his life more than this. What had he done? How could he fix it? _How?!_

Down in the basement, Shannon was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall and holding a glass of bourbon in her hand. She barely drank, but when she did, she took something strong, and tonight, she certainly needed something strong.

She heard Jethro descending the stairs and cautiously sitting beside her on the cement floor; the man grabbed the glass from her hand and emptied it in one gulp.

"Hey! That was mine." She protested weakly, but didn't reach for the bottle to refill her glass and neither did Jethro.

"I screwed up, Shan."

"Yes." She said, not seeing the point to sugarcoat things.

"What should I do?"

"You think I'd be sitting here and drink if I knew?" She answered bitterly, eyeing the bottle of bourbon longingly.

They sat there side by side for quite a while, not exchanging a single word. It was something they both enjoyed, sitting together silently and taking comfort from each other's presence; but that night it was different; that night they weren't thinking about their routine and normal problems, enjoying each other's company; that night they were both thinking of a way to fix a mistake that had hurt someone they both loved to the end of the world. If anyone else had hurt their son, they both knew they'd be kicking some asses, showing the world what happened if someone messed with their kids, their family. But the pain hadn't been caused by an outsider, this time and that's why they were so lost. Other than words, they had nothing to offer to their son and somehow, for some reasons, they didn't think their words would help their boy's broken soul.

"Call your boss. Tell him you can't go to work tomorrow." Shannon finally broke the silence and Gibbs, who was more than happy to let her take control of the situation, nodded his agreement.

"I'll call Elise," she mentioned their babysitter, "and ask her to come and get the girls. We need the day alone with Tony."

Again Gibbs nodded.

"Not sure it'd do any good, though." She sighed.

"We gotta start somewhere. _I_... _I_ gotta start somewhere." He sighed and there was so much pain in his voice that left Shannon no doubt that whatever had left her husband's mouth had been just an angry rant, directed at the wrong person and he hadn't meant a word of it; not that it was an excuse; no; but at least it meant things like that would never happen again.

"Oh, Jethro." She sighed brokenly. "He... I can't help thinking about the way he looked at us and stayed quiet and I just wanna..." She swallowed and leaned her head against Jethro's shoulder. The man opened his arm and pulled her into a one side hug.

"I know." He replied quietly and then suddenly started to laugh. It sounded hollow and bitter but it still surprised Shannon, causing her to pull away to stare at him.

Seeing that look on her face, Gibbs explained, "To think I cursed his father in my head last week when he shrank away from my touch, when I had _myself_ to curse." He shook his head. "And you know what, I bet he's been lying about not having a nightmare when we asked him about it; he probably has had a lot of them; just with me in them instead of that bastard of sperm donor this time."

Shannon wanted to comfort him, but she wasn't sure how.

"If I can't get his trust back... God, Shan! If I don't see that easy smile on his face again or don't hear his playful laughter again, I don't know what I'd do."

"How can we make him see that we mean it when we say we're sorry, Jethro? How can we make him believe us now?" She asked quietly, once again leaning against him.

"I don't know." He replied ruefully, "But I'd die trying, anyway."

She nodded against his chest, because that was about the only thing they could do.

"I'm sorry, Shan."

"I know." She sighed.

"You know, you didn't do anything; you were mad at me for saying those things; but now Tony is scared of you, too and it's all my fault. I'm sorry for that, too."

Biting her lip, she, once again, fought the tears that had welled up in her eyes and just nodded again; afraid that if she opened her mouth, her voice would tremble or a sob would escape.

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 **TBC ...**

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 ** _So, they finally know what the problem is! Tell me what you think?_**

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	9. I still Remember How to Be a Good Boy-4

_**A/N: Another huge thank you, to all of you, who've been reading my story and for supporting me with your comments, faves and alerts.**_

 _ **An extra thanks to Carol; Anya; Cathy Brown; Sarah; Lunaz and the Guest. I'm so glad you've enjoyed this story and the whole collection, so far, and I'm sorry if I'm a bit late. You're all right about Tony being really hurt and therefore, unable to trust anyone easily after something like this.**_

 _ **Anya; glad you're feeling better; happy I could help a bit. (Also, thanks, I'm feeling much better.)**_

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 _ **Cathy Brown; yes, of course! In fact, here is the last part of it! :D And although this one is the last part of this story line; I'm gonna be back with a new story in this universe, soon.  
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 _ **.**_

 _ **Hope you guys like the final chapter of this story line, as well.**_

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"Tooonyyy?" Shannon called out with a singsong voice as she shook her son awake.

The young parents had sent the girls away with their babysitter; called their work places and arranged their day off and then together they'd made breakfast and walked to Tony's room. Now Jethro was holding the tray as Shannon tried to wake Tony up.

Rubbing his eyes with his fists, the little boy slowly opened his eyes; upon seeing Shannon and Gibbs, he quickly sat up and looked at them with surprise.

"Hello there." She smiled happily, even though she felt anything but happy on the inside.

"Look what we have here!" Jethro called as he walked around the bed and carefully sat down on the bed on the other side of his son; making himself comfortable.

Tony murmured a good morning, but otherwise remained quiet and studied that strange behavior of his parents.

"Breakfast in bed; what do you say? Fun, huh?" Shannon pulled him in a one arm hug as Jethro put the tray in front of his son. There were all kinds of food for a big breakfast there; from juice and milk to scrambled egg and pancakes and toast.

"What?" The boy was so shocked he wasn't even sure this wasn't a dream.

"Well, today is a special day; so we thought we could start with a huge breakfast." Jethro explained as he held a fork with pancake in front of Tony's mouth.

Tony's eyes crossed as he tried to look at the fork which was entering his mouth without him even noticing and Jethro couldn't help it, he just burst into laughter. At the sound of his laughter, Tony pulled away and looked at him strangely. He then looked at Shannon. "Special day?" He asked quietly.

"Yes, baby." She nodded with a smile. "Today, it's just the three of us; you, me and your dad. How does that sound?"

That kinda sounded scary, to be honest. But Tony thought it wasn't polite to mention it. So he remained quiet. They both fed him, since the boy was clearly too mystified to move and every time he tried to reach out and hold the fork or the glass back, they'd maneuver the food into his mouth, not letting him refuse eating; they tried to keep up the happy chattering, even though they both felt dejected when the little boy kept eyeing them suspiciously, remaining quiet.

Once the breakfast was over, Gibbs put the tray on the floor and made himself more comfortable on the bed.

Tony couldn't take it anymore, he had to know; "Are you sending me away?" He asked quietly because he'd tried to come up with another explanation and this one was the only thing that made sense to him; they probably were going to send him away and this was his last day with them, which was why they called it special. He felt his heart sinking at that thought; he'd really tried to be better, but apparently that hadn't been enough here either and because they were nice people, unlike his real father, they were going to make his last day a happy one. "I'm sorry." He added, sounding resigned; "I tried. I'm sorry I'm loud and bad. I tried to be better. I'm sorry."

Shannon turned her head away, so Tony wouldn't see how red her eyes had suddenly become as Jethro closed his eyes for a second to compose himself; their suspicions were confirmed; Tony had actually heard them since he was using the very same words that had left Gibbs' mouth.

Lifting Tony up with ease, Gibbs put him on his legs so he could look the boy in the eyes when he talked. "Tony, no. No, we'll never send you away. Never! You're our son and this will always and forever be your home, OK?"

The boy looked doubtful, so Gibbs continued. "Last night..." He paused and looked at Shannon, who nodded to indicate that he should continue, "Last night we realized what had been bothering you the whole week. We weren't sure, but... But we think that somehow you've heard some awful things that left my mouth last week. Is that true?"

Tony looked down, unable to hold his dad's gaze.

That was enough of a confirmation. "Oh, Tony, I'm so sorry." Jethro pressed Tony's small body to his chest and held him there for some long seconds before pulling back, murmuring apologies all along. He, then, put a hand on the back of the boy's head and held his gaze "You've got no idea how much I hate myself for saying those things; even though they aren't true and were never my real feelings; I still shouldn't have said those terrible things." He paused, but when Tony didn't react in any way, he went on, "I want you to know that I regretted them the moment I said them; I feel like a terrible dad. I don't have any excuse for why I acted like such an idiot, but... It's just that the case I was working on has gotten to me and I just let out my anger at the closest thing I found and I'm sorry."

"Yeah, he's like that." Shannon made a face. "And it's so wrong."

From the corner of his eye, Tony looked at her.

"You know, I've always been at his case for that; he's just terrible at compartmentalizing."

Tony's eyebrow went up; he wasn't sure he knew what that meant.

"She means I'm terrible at separating things from each other." Jethro helped with a sad chuckle. "She's right. I always mix everything; get angry with one thing when something else is upsetting me and taking it out on the wrong people when I've had a bad day somewhere else."

"This is what he did again. Add displacement issue to being terrible at compartmentalizing; you gotta learn these big words; they define your dad whenever he gets too frustrated with his cases." Shannon took it from there, shaking her head with an eye roll for good measure. "I don't know how much you've heard and I'm sorry you've heard anything at all or that those things were uttered at all; but you gotta know that we love you and we love having you here with us; you've got no idea how much you being our son means to us or has helped us."

"Nothing makes us happier, Tony." Jethro said sincerely. "The day you came into our lives is one of the best days of my life and I'm telling you I'd never _ever_ change it for anything."

Tony bit his lip and nodded. "Thanks."

"I know it's hard for you to believe me, but it's the truth, Son. I said I wanted quiet but the last week had been torture; I never want it quiet again; in fact, I'll write it down and if I ever said it again you can use it against me in the court."

That made the boy chuckle; he was old enough to know it was a stupid thing to say and that the court didn't work like that.

The quiet chuckle boosted the parents' spirits; they've missed that sound so much.

"And you gotta know, even when I was being a complete ass-"

"Whoa-" Shannon's eyes narrowed.

Jethro grimaced; yeah, bad word.

Tony grinned, though.

And Shannon shook her head, knowing that, this time, Jethro had used that language deliberately.

"Umm, yeah, sorry, when I was being... _that..._ or well _,_ a jerk." He rolled his eyes and was happy to hear Tony snicker again, "Your mom was chewing me out; she knew I didn't mean it and told me so and then she pretty much told me off for it because she was so mad at me. And you know what I was happy about?"

Tony shook his head.

"I was happy that you haven't heard a word that I'd said." Jethro shook his head. "How stupid am I? I didn't know you've heard me and I was happy for that, because I regretted saying those things and the thought of you hearing them and getting hurt or upset broke my heart and made me hate myself even more. And when we realized that you've actually heard..." He sighed and clenched his jaw; it physically hurt him to remember what his blundering and inconsiderate words had put his son through.

"What we're trying to say is that," Shannon took Tony from her husband and led him to sit by her side so she could pull him into a hug. "We love you and we're so happy you're in our lives. We want you to make as much noise as you like and never ever let this house get quiet again."

"Amen to that." Jethro, too, moved to the other side of the bed and sat down, putting his arm around Shannon so he could feel both his wife and his son against his body. "I never want you to even think that anything your father had said had been true; everything, Tony, everything that man had said to you had been lies, including the things he'd said about you. You're an amazing boy; don't let anyone make you doubt that. Not even me. Because as you just saw, I can be such an idiot sometimes."

"Amen to that." Shannon muttered, echoing the words her husband had used merely seconds earlier.

"You believe us, right?" Jethro asked his son, quietly, sounding unsure. "You know that I didn't mean anything I said, right?"

Tony swallowed hard and bit his lip.

"Tony?"

"I don't wanna disappoint you." He finally said quietly.

"Oh! Son, you can never disappoint us; not even if you tried."

Shannon nodded her agreement. "And what _ever_ you do with your life, we'll _always_ be on your side and we'll always have your back; even if you do something stupid. We're a family now and family stick together no matter what. And you know what? I'm just sure that you'll always make the right decisions; in the short time that you've been our son, you've shown everyone how amazingly smart you are. We're so proud of you."

"So true." Gibbs confirmed, sounding actually proud. "So, I just want you to do one thing;" He said and gently turned Tony's head to be able to look him in the eyes. "I want you to run around-"

"Preferably not _in_ the house." Shannon interrupted him. "You might fall down and hurt yourself." She shrugged.

"Yeah, OK. I want you to _play_ around and make as much noises as you need in order to be happy. We want you to be happy, Tony. You got that?"

Tony smiled tentatively.

Gibbs winked at him and kissed his head. He knew it'd take a while for Tony to get back to what he'd been prior to that awful night; but he could see it in Tony's eyes that they'd made a huge progress already; that they no longer were scary like his father was. Of course, Tony would still be wary and careful for a while; but he knew just what kind of push Tony needed to get his playful spirit back.

Oh, man; the pranks he had in mind to pull on everyone around them.

But hey, it was for Tony and he'd do _anything_ for his children and well, if he had some fun in the meantime, who could say anything?

He felt so lucky and grateful that Tony was such a forgiving and resilient child; he'd been through hell and not only wasn't he bitter or aggressive -like many people, child or adult, would be-, he still found it pretty easy to forgive people who hurt him and he kept bouncing back.

And Gibbs would prove it that, this time, he'd meant what he said; that the day Tony became his son was one of the best days of his life.

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 **The End...**

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 _ **A/N: Let me know what you think?**_

 _ **The next one will have a new story line; totally unrelated to this story or the ones before this.**_

 ** _._**

 **I don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	10. Way to Keep A Promise - 1

_**A/N: Like I said, I haven't forgotten about this collection. Here's another story  
**_

 _ **This one is probably gonna be a three-chapter story and hopefully, I'll be able to post a chapter every two weeks; maybe even more frequently if I'm lucky. Again, sorry for the long gap between this story and the last one. Hope you like where this one goes and let me know what you think.  
**_

 _ **Thanks for your patience and for your reviews asking for more stories in this universe.**_

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 _ **.**_

 **. Way to Keep A Promise .**

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"What's with all the noise and shouts?" Gibbs growled sleepily as he padded out of his room; feeling still totally drained from the last couple of sleepless nights.

It was almost ten in the morning, so it wasn't strange for the kids to be awake and running around; but he hadn't gotten to bed until 6 that morning, meaning he was too tired to think about the time.

His team had left town to work on a case in New York a few days back and had just returned that morning; exhausted and totally sleep deprived. The whole team had been given three days off and although he wasn't one to spend his days lazily in bed or burn daylight sleeping, after 4 days of close to no sleep, he'd decided that he'd sleep his whole time-off.

What he'd forgotten about, when he'd made that promise to himself, was that he was the father of two children and like that wasn't enough, two more kids were currently staying with them at his place and his wife was at work; that meant it was up to him to keep the kids alive; because seriously, if they were left to their own devices, they'd probably bring the whole house down and dance on its ashes; or well, it was the thing he'd dreamed about that morning when he'd tried to sleep and the noise had penetrated his tired mind.

At least Shannon had fed the kids before leaving for work and he hadn't been forced to get up at eight! He thought that it's really a wonder; when those kids had to get up early for school, they always had to drag them out of their beds, but when they had a vacation, they were up before dawn.

"Hey!" He shouted again when the kids didn't hear and answer him the first time.

"It's Tony's fault." Kate replied quickly as she saw the grumpy man.

"Of course it is." Gibbs growled under his breath and if he'd been more alert, he would've felt bad when Tony's eyes widened at hearing those words.

"I-"

"What've you done, now?" He cut the boy off and looked between him and the other kids, noticing Tim's watery eyes.

"Timmy just wanted to play with Tony's action figures, but Tony doesn't let him." Abby said, scowling at her brother.

"I'm _playing_ with them." Tony whined, taking a step away from the group.

"You just don't wanna share them." Kate rolled her eyes the way she'd seen her mother doing; feeling like she was much older and wiser than the rest of the kids. "You can play with something else. Why can't you let someone else play with your toys? You always take _our_ stuff and never listen when we say we don't like you to do that."

"I don't take them when you're playing with them." Tony argued; thinking about his own actions and still feeling sure that he'd never taken anything from anyone when they were using it.

"Tim is smaller than you; you can play later." Kate always felt she was in charge when Shannon wasn't around and she never failed to show it.

" _Tim_ can play with his own toys; these are mine."

"For God's sake!" Gibbs snapped at them; his patience wearing thin. "All the hubbub is just over some stupid _toys_? Tony, just give them to Tim and go do something else."

"But-"

"Give them to him." Gibbs growled impatiently. "Now!"

Looking thoroughly chastised and subdued, Tony handed his toys to the younger boy who was now grinning happily, sticking his tongue out at Tony.

"Now be quiet, all of you and let me get some sleep." He turned on his heel and went back to his room, slamming the door shut. He was asleep before his head touched his pillow.

The other kids looked at Tony triumphantly and all went to play in the backyard.

Tony just stood there for a couple more minutes, looking after them and then down at his now empty hands. Sighing, he went back to his room and crawled into his own bed. At least they couldn't take his bed from him.

 _They... They couldn't, right?_

Swallowing with trepidation, Tony realized that they could do that, too. They were four now and if the Gibbs took one more kid in, then there won't be enough bed for all of them and that probably meant that they would take Tony's bed away from him so that the new kid could have a bed to sleep in.

Shaking his head, he considered that thought impossible. They wouldn't do that. They'd never take his bed away from him.

 _'But...'_ A voice protested in his head; ' _They've also told you that they'd never take your toys away from you either.'_

When he'd come to live with Gibbs and Shannon, he'd been too scared of touching anything, thinking that he'd be punished for it. Even when they bought him toys, he wouldn't play with them, thinking that it was a test to see if he'd give in and touch things that he wasn't supposed to touch.

He'd never had toys of his own before and his father always got mad at him if he caught him with one. Once, one of the house staff had bought him some really cool action figures, but when his father saw them, he threw them out, beat Tony for being a baby and fired the woman who'd bought them for him. More than anything, Tony was sad about the latter.

So, when the Gibbs bought him toys, he didn't touch them for the longest time. But one day, Gibbs came home with those cool action figures; just like the ones that Lily had gotten him before getting fired because of it; and even though Tony had been scared of playing with them, he hadn't been able to control himself and touched them; tracing his fingers over them longingly and imagined holding them.

Gibbs and Shannon sat with him patiently and finally when he didn't do anything but touch the toys, Gibbs had picked one of the toy soldiers and put it in Tony's small hand. That day, he told Tony that the toys were his and no one, _ever_ , would take them away from him; that he would never have to even share them with the others if he didn't want to and he could hold them forever and ever if that was what he wanted.

And to this day, three years later, he hadn't let those toys out of his sight unless he was at school. He just loved them and now that he'd gotten older, he looked at them as more than some toys that he'd once wished to have; now they were a reminder of what his new parents had given him and today, Gibbs had taken them away from him. Despite what he'd said that day, he'd made Tony give them away and even though Tony was old enough to know what Gibbs had done was very different than his father's action and that he hadn't thrown them away and had just made him share the toys, it still made him sad and mostly because Gibbs had forgotten his promise; he'd forgotten that he'd said he'd _never_ have to share those toys if he didn't want to and now he'd gotten angry at him for doing what he was given permission to do and had made him give them away.

Tony would happily share anything else he had with the others; just not those action figures; he couldn't separate from them; and now that Gibbs had forgotten his words and had taken this important thing from him, who could say he wouldn't forget other promises as well?

Well, he'd always suspected that his new life was too good to be true and knew it'd come to an end one day; he'd always expected to either wake up and find himself back in his real father's house, or see Gibbs sending him away. Maybe this was the beginning of it.

And while children are usually known for being over dramatic, making a mountain out of a molehill, nobody who knew about Tony's past could roll their eyes at those thoughts and call him oversensitive. He reacted unconsciously based on experience and in his experience and thoughts, nothing good lasted long and he wasn't worth anything good anyway.

...

It wasn't until 4 in the afternoon that Gibbs finally woke up from his deep slumber. Stretching his body, he got up from his bed and felt that although he was in immediate need of a cup of coffee _-or two, or three-_ , he was pretty much well-rested now and could, once again, think and function like a human-being.

Walking downstairs, he found a pot of Mac and Cheese on the stove, which while not full, contained enough food for him to have a good lunch.

He quickly grabbed the pot and started eating and he was almost done when he remembered that he was the only parent at home and Shannon wasn't supposed to be back for another two hours. That left him with the question that if Shannon wasn't back home, who'd made the food?

"Daddy!" Abby screamed happily as she ran to him and hugged his legs. "You're awake."

Promptly, he bent down and hugged his little girl back and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "Hey, baby girl!"

"Are you feeling better? Because you were kinda not feeling well this morning."

Gibbs couldn't remember much about that morning; all he knew was that he'd woken up from all the noises; had somehow fixed the problem that now he couldn't even recall what it was, and had gone back to sleep.

"I'm good now. Thanks for asking."

The girl smiled happily and ran to the sink to grab a glass. Clearly she'd come back inside to get some water. Once she drank her water, she was about to go back outside when Gibbs' question stopped her.

"Hey, Abs! Who made lunch today?"

"Oh." Her eyes shone. "Tony did. It was awesome. Wasn't it? I loved it."

Smiling, he nodded. "Yes, it was great."

He hadn't even known that Tony knew how to cook, let alone making something that delicious; besides, wasn't Tony too young to play with the stove?

Well, the kids needed food and _he_ 'd been supposed to prepare it for them and yet he'd slept like a log; he couldn't blame Tony for going near the stove to prepare lunch and if the delicious food was anything to go by, then Tony clearly knew his way around a stove, which, considering Tony's previous home life, wasn't that odd.

Feeling guilty for not thinking about his kids and their lunch and needs, he decided to make Tony's favorite food for dinner to make it up to him for having his back like this.

Happy with his decision, he poured himself a cup of coffee; still not remembering and not even thinking about what had happened that morning.

 **.**

 **.**

 **TBC ...**

 **.**

* * *

 _ **So, what do you think?**_

 _ **Just a reminder that kids, unlike us, don't forget promises easily -not that we do if we're the ones being promised something!-; somehow they remember promises for years and breaking them affects children more than we think.**_

.

 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	11. Way to Keep A Promise - 2

_**A/N: Dear Hells Bells, Maccie B, Happy,**_ _ **SJS27 and other Guests, thank you for your comments; hope you enjoy this story.**_

 _ **.**_

 _ **Yes, I agree that Gibbs is OOC in some of these stories; in all of them, probably; because, here, Gibbs hasn't gone through what he had on the show and as much as I try to keep them close to their real characters and the events of the show, this is still an AU, so they'll sound OOC no matter what and sometimes they should, because experience, hardships and years of going through different incidents change everyone and these stories are happening before many of those events and incidents. I hope you still enjoy them, though.**_

 _ **Hells Bells, I'll try my best; thank you. :D  
**_

 _ **Maccie B; I think we all understand the need for hurt!Tony, especially after something like this! At least I get it! :D Don't worry about your words. Thanks and I hope you like this chapter. No physically hurt!Tony in this one, though. I'm sorry.** _

_**SJS27, stories of this collection are totally separated from each other; so what happened in previous chapters has not actually happened in the life of the characters of this story. Moreover, Gibbs didn't let anyone explain, per se; he just asked one question and they all jumped in to talk and since he was pretty much still asleep, he stopped them before anyone else could speak; that being said, he did make a mistake by not asking Tony first or at least sending Tim away to find another toy to play with. (I can tell you that Gibbs will eventually see what the others do to Tony; in this story and another one.) So, I understand what you mean and thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.**_

 _ **.**_

* * *

The next month, nobody remembered that day or cared about what had happened then.

Tim was back with his family for the moment and even Kate had gone home to be with her parents that weekend.

So, the only people left in the house were Jethro and Shannon and their two children.

It was a slow weekend and fortunately both parents had managed to free their weekend to spend it with the kids and get some rest.

"Jethro?" Shannon asked as she sat by her husband's side on the couch.

"Yeah?"

It was late Friday night and he was reading a book; so he wasn't completely focused on his wife to notice her thoughtful expression.

"Do you think there's anything wrong with Tony? I mean... Have you noticed anything different about him?"

Frowning, he momentarily took his eyes away from the words in front of him. "No. Why?"

"No reason really." She shrugged. "He just seems off to me."

"Off how?"

"Like..." She tilted her head. "Well, like he's kinda not himself."

Gibbs shook his head with a small frown on his face to show he didn't understand what she meant.

Her shoulders dropped. "I don't know really. I've just noticed that he seems to be always in his room, unless he's helping with the chores or watching TV with us. And every time I go to his room he's just reading a book and it's always the same book."

"What book is that?"

"Tom Sawyer."

"Yeah, I've always said we shouldn't let him read that book."

"It's literature, Jethro." She rolled her eyes.

"So is Moby Dick." He held up his own book. "Doesn't mean it's suitable for an 8 year old boy."

"What?" Shannon looked at him incredulously. "You can't compare those two."

"Have you _read_ Tom Sawyer, Shan?" Gibbs tilted his head. "Besides, Tony's hotheaded enough. He doesn't need to learn new tricks."

"First of all, he must've read that book hundreds of times; he won't learn anything new from it. Second of all, hotheaded? Tony's _not_ hothead."

"What if he thinks it's cool to have an adventure like that and runs away?"

"Tony wouldn't do that."

"He's already done that once."

"What? When?" She sat up straight, thinking there was something she wasn't aware of.

"He ran away from his father's house."

Shannon's jaw dropped. "Because he was being _tortured_ there."

Gibbs winced; totally convinced and a bit chastised. "Yeah." He sighed. "Guess it's a good thing he's heard Tom Sawyer's story back then." They both knew that one of his nannies had told him that story and that was why Tony loved that book so much. He'd been so happy when Shannon bought that book for him. Almost as happy as he'd been when Jethro got him those action figures.

"Anyway!" Shannon shook her head like she wasn't sure how they'd gotten to that point. "All I'm saying is that all the time, he's just sitting there reading that book. He already knows every word of it by heart. And it's really not healthy for a boy his age to be sitting in one place all the time. He should be running around, going outside, playing with kids his age."

She had a point and it made Jethro think. Racking his brain, he realized that he couldn't really remember the last time he'd seen Tony playing with his toys, either. Not even with his action figures.

"Do you think he might be depressed?" Shannon was still talking.

"Huh?" He shook his head to refocus. "But why? He was fine. Things have been fine."

"I don't know." She shrugged. "But you agree with me, right? That he seems off!"

"Now that you've mentioned... Yeah, he does."

"Do you think we should ask him?"

"Do you think he'd actually answer?" Gibbs asked. "That boy can teach _me_ a lesson or two about deflection and that's when he's willing to actually talk."

"Hmm, you've got a point."

"OK, let's look at this like a case." He turned around in his seat to face his wife; putting his book away.

"What? Like one of your cases or mine?"

"Is there any difference?"

"Well, _we_ look for symptoms."

Gibbs raised his eyebrow. "And we look for evidence. Both are the same."

"Fine. Let's find the culprit." She rubbed her hands together and got ready.

Suppressing his smile, Gibbs asked the first question. "When did you first notice that something was off with him?"

Touching her chin, Shannon thought for a few seconds. "Hard to say; but it could go back to a couple of weeks ago; a month maybe. I don't think it's longer than that."

"Hmm. Let's say a month. And what has he been doing exactly during this month?"

" _You_ 're gonna make a good team leader one day, Gunny." Shannon laughed. "Let me see; he always offers to help me with the chores. He does some of them without asking; like the other day I saw him washing the dishes and a few times I've found him folding the newly washed clothes. Sometimes when we're all there, he sits with us to watch TV. When he's free he's in his room and every time I've seen him there he's only holding that one book." She thought some more and seemed to be unable to come up with any other thing. "What about you? Can you think of him doing anything else?"

Gibbs looked up at the ceiling and tried to remember everything about the last few weeks. "OK. So I haven't seen him playing with his toys; I've found him reading his book a couple of times and-" he side glanced at his wife, "I never paid any attention to what book it was; so I don't know if it's been the same one or not."

Wrinkling her nose, she said, "And that's why you still have got a _long_ way to go before becoming that team leader I just mentioned."

Jethro chuckled at that. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I always am." She smiled cheekily. "Anything else?"

"I don't know." He narrowed his eyes and tried to think of other stuff. "I've seen him doing the dishes. Oh, he even once made lunch."

"He did?"

"Yeah, Mac and Cheese. And let me tell you, it was _amazing_." He had this look on his face like he was once again tasting the food and was enjoying it.

"Seriously? Why can't _I_ remember that?"

"Oh," The man looked at her kinda sheepishly, "I may have forgotten to leave you any."

"You..." She shook her head, looking amused. "You _forgot_? You mean you got carried away and ate the whole thing?"

"Hey, there wasn't much to begin with." He protested. "The kids had already eaten most of it when I got up from bed and I was really hungry." He paused, "We could always ask him to make it again and then you can taste it, too."

Making a face at her husband, she sighed. "Whatever. Why would he even make lunch? The kids are never alone."

"Yeah, about that;" Jethro bit his lip. "I... You remember the day I got back from NYC and was really tired?"

"Yeah?"

"So, I _might_ 've overslept a bit and so..." At the accusing glare from his girl, he gave up on beating around the bush. "Fine, I overslept, forgot about the kids and thankfully Tony didn't let them go hungry and really, if they'd woken me up, I _would_ 've made them lunch, but when I got up it was already 4 in the afternoon and they'd had their lunch."

Grabbing the book from where Jethro had put it before starting their investigation, she hit him with it on the nose. "Bad boy."

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"So, that's it? That's all you remember?"

"Yeah."

"OK, so, we've got nothing? He helps with the house chores; watches TV; reads his book and never plays? So much for solving this like a case. We're exactly where we were half an hour ago and you were still reading your book then."

"Hey, how's that _my_ fault?"

" _You_ 're the investigator. Shouldn't you be able to solve something like this?"

Inhaling deeply, Gibbs tried to find a way around the problem, because now, he, too, needed to know why Tony had suddenly felt it was time to grow up. "So if this's been going on for about a month, it could have something to do with Kate and Tim. Can you think of any changes in the other kids' behaviors?"

Shannon pondered for a while and then finally shook her head. "Not really."

They both sat there and silently thought for some minutes, looking at the situation from every angle they could imagine.

"Jethro?"

"Yeah?"

"There's something else."

"What?"

"Tony's action figures."

"What about them?"

"They're missing." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, that must be it. You know he loves them more than anything else he owns; he wouldn't let them out of his sight; we had trouble stopping him from taking them to school with him. And now they're nowhere to be seen. That's why this whole situation seems off. He's not playing with them."

Jethro narrowed his eyes. Shannon was right about their son and those plastic toys. But there was something else that was bothering him about the missing toys that he couldn't put his finger on.

"Do you think he's lost them?" She asked absently. "Maybe he's lost them and he's sad about it and that's why he doesn't play with anything else; or maybe he's afraid we'd get mad if he told us and that's why he's become so quiet."

Gibbs got up and started to pace up and down; there were images in his head that he couldn't decipher; like a vague memory.

Shannon noticed the change in her husband's behavior. "What's it? Do you know something?"

Gibbs shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like there's this thing but-" He suddenly stopped.

"What?"

"Crap!"

"What? What's it?" She stood up quickly and walked to him.

"Remember the day I came back from that assignment in NYC?"

"You mentioned it literally three minutes ago, Jethro." She pointed out.

"Yes, the same day Tony made lunch because I was too tired to even think about our kids." He winced.

"And?"

"And I apparently had been more tired than I imagined."

"Meaning?"

"I can't believe I forgot this. I... I can't believe I did this."

"Did what? Jethro, for God's sake; just spit it out."

"Hey I'm trying." He groaned. "That morning I woke up to the kids making all kinda crazy noises and when I demanded an answer I was told that apparently Tim had wanted to play with Tony's action figures and Tony was refusing to let him play with them."

Shannon's eyes narrowed; she could already see where this story was going. "Let me guess; you forced Tony to give them to Tim?"

Gibbs nodded with a wince.

"You forced Tony, the boy who was afraid to _touch_ his toys when he first came to us because he'd never been allowed to have toys, to give his favorite toys away?"

Jethro averted his gaze. "Well, I just _told_ him; I didn't _force_ -"

"Jethro!" Shannon threw her hands in the air. "Same difference. No wonder that boy has stopped playing altogether."

"Tim just wanted to-"

"Don't!" Shannon cut him off harshly. "You remember, don't you?"

"Remember what?" He asked indignantly.

Shannon's voice was icy when she answered. "That those were the first toys he ever touched. That he loved them so much he wouldn't let go of them. That you _promised_ him that no one, ever, would take them away from him and if he didn't want to, he didn't have to share them or give them to anyone. You remember that. Right?"

Of course he remembered. Gibbs wanted to snap that he did. Except... Maybe he hadn't remembered it when it'd mattered.

Shaking her head with disappointment, Shannon sank back into the couch. "You broke your promise to him, Jethro. And we both know it's now more than about some plastic toys."

"I didn't mean to." He said quietly. "The kids said... They-"

"The _kids_ said? We both know they can push Tony into a corner when they want to. We've already talked about how they sometimes gang up against Tony and how Tony just lets them because he doesn't want to end up alone."

"Well-"

"Yeah, guess when you're tired you forget that, too, huh?" She glared at him and then rubbed her forehead with two fingers. "Jethro, they were Tony's toys; no matter what everyone else said, you should've asked _him_ what he wanted to do. You could've made Tim go play with something else."

"He's younger."

"So?" Shannon glared. "It's not like Tony was bullying him. He was just guarding his own toys."

"I didn't think it could get like this." He moaned.

"Doesn't matter, Jethro." She said coldly. "If you break one promise; a really important promise like that, who's to say you won't break other promises?"

Gibbs' head snapped towards her; hurt was evident in his eyes. "I'd never do that."

"Face it, Jethro, you already did." Shannon was sad for her husband, too. "I know you didn't do it on purpose and I know you wouldn't break any important promises; but Tony doesn't know that. To him, this was an important promise that you broke; to him it's like he lost those action figures the first time around; when his father threw them away." They'd managed to pull that story out of Tony one night after a bad nightmare.

"And now he doesn't play with anything else because he thinks he doesn't deserve to have toys." Gibbs concluded, already feeling shitty. "I took his favorite toys away and gave them to Tim. All because I was too tired to think and just wanted to get back to sleep."

Feeling bad for the love of her life, Shannon pulled his hand and made him sit with her. "Everyone makes mistake, Hun."

"How can I fix this?"

"Where are those toys, anyway? Did Tim give them back?"

"I don't know. Haven't seen them around."

"We should talk to him." Shannon finally offered, knowing that sitting there and feeling bad about the whole situation wouldn't change a thing.

"No. _I_ should talk to him."

"Jehtro-"

"No, Shannon. This is my mess and I'll fix it up and besides, you didn't do anything wrong; I did and Tony needs to know that I do remember my promise and I feel bad for breaking it."

"Yeah... It's... A bit late; I mean you did forget your promise-"

"I already feel really shitty." Gibbs growled.

"Sorry. Sorry." Shannon apologized quickly. "But... You kinda deserve it."

"I know." Jethro said, sounding defeated. "I screwed up."

"Just a little bit. But hey, you're only human." She tried to help. "Just, next time, don't let it go for a whole month, huh?"

"Oh, shit." Gibbs dropped his head to his chest. "I put him through this for a whole _month_ and even now _you_ had to point it out for me to notice."

"Hey, no one can blame you. You're not a woman." She said; her tone light and teasing.

That brought a small smile to Gibbs' face. "Yeah, when we screw up we screw up royally."

Nodding sagely; she patted his shoulder. "We still love you, even though sometimes you're _too_ single-minded."

"Thank God for that." Chuckling, he shook his head. "Seriously, Shan; thanks. I... I don't know-"

"Shhh, it's alright. Just fix our son. Huh?"

"You got it."

"That's my boy." She kissed him lovingly and then pulled him up so they could go to their bedroom and sleep; poor Jethro was going to have a tough day the coming morning.

 **.**

 **.**

 **TBC ...**

 **.**

* * *

 _ **Share your thoughts with me?  
**_

.

 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	12. Way to Keep A Promise - 3

_**A/N: Thank you, Maccie B, Happy,**_ _ **barbara and the other Guests; you guys are amazing.**_

 _ **.**_

* * *

"I found them."

Shannon wasn't even completely awake yet and Jethro was complaining about something already!

Checking the time, she realized that for once, it wasn't too early, though, so she couldn't send Jethro away.

"Shan?"

"Yes, baby? Good morning to you too." She moved her hair out of her face and rubbed her eyes. "What have you found now?"

"You really mistake me for Abby, sometimes, you know that?" Jethro growled good-naturedly before he remembered what he'd found and why he'd woken his wife up. Holding something in front of Shannon's face, he waited for her to notice it. "Found one."

Blinking a few times, Shannon was finally able to focus on the figure in front of her. "Oh." Her eyes widened as their talk from last night came to her mind. "Oops; doesn't look salvageable." The action figure in her husband's hand was muddy, deformed and missing a leg. "He was a good man." She said sadly.

"Shannon!" Gibbs growled and heavily sat on the bed. "I found it in the back yard. I think a dog has used it as a chew toy."

"It had a good life?" She yawned; still not fully awake.

"Make sure to remind Tony of _that_. I'm sure he'd feel really consoled."

That seemed to do the trick as she became more alert. "Tony'll be even more desolated now."

Jethro sighed; feeling even guiltier than before.

"You think Tim's left it there?"

"Well, _I_ didn't! And I'm sure Tony hasn't seen it since I made him give it away."

"Well, looks like the next time Tim is back, we gotta have a talk with him, too." Shannon stated seriously and sat up. "He gotta learn that if he's trusted with someone else's stuff, he has to return them in the exact shape he'd gotten them in the first place; and he gotta understand there'll be consequences for things like this."

Jethro agreed with her one hundred percent and absently wondered whether or not Tony knew this would happen when he'd been refusing to share his toys. He knew Tony didn't mind sharing his stuff; he'd seen him sharing his toys, books and everything else with Abby before and he knew Tony even lent some of his toys and books to his friends at school. So, either this set was too special and precious to him or he knew little Tim wasn't old enough to be trusted like that. Either way, he'd messed up by not trusting his son's judgment and ordering him to do something against his will.

He hoped Tony would wake up sooner, so that he could go talk to him. He was kinda feeling like a little boy who had to admit to his parents that he'd made a big mistake.

"Hey, sounds like the kids are awake." Shannon heard some noises coming from downstairs. "Let's go have some breakfast first and then you can take Tony shopping."

"You think I can replace this?" He held the ruined toy up and assessed it.

"That's the best you can do." She shrugged; then patted his arm. "But don't worry, honey. Tony's really forgiving. And when it comes to serious stuff, he's way older than his real age says. He'll understand. Just explain it to him like it is and make sure he knows you just messed up and forgot about the importance of his toys, not the deeper layers of the promise you made all those years ago."

"You sure you can't-"

"Oh, grow up, Jethro!" She rolled her eyes. "You gotta learn to actually open up every now and then. Those kids are not soldiers and I can't always translate everything you're thinking to them and everyone else. Oh, and tell Tony I said you'll answer to me next time you break a promise. He'll feel safer that way."

Jethro gulped; yup, he was screwed! If there was one person in the whole world that he was actually afraid of, it'd be Shannon and she clearly knew it.

...

When Tony was told that he was going to go shopping with his dad, he didn't ask any questions; he figured that he was going to help the man and while, secretly, he was happy about it, because he loved spending time with his daddy; he kept it to himself; afraid that the man wouldn't approve of those feelings.

When they got to Walmart and went straight to the toy department, Tony faltered a bit; but then he silently scolded himself, telling himself that Gibbs might want to buy a toy for Abby and he couldn't show how much it hurt him to go there.

His dad, however, didn't take anything for Abby; he went to a shelf and took a set of action figures just like the one he used to have. He'd seen a couple of those plastic toys in their back yard, but hadn't touched them; they were thrown away; like his first set; that meant they weren't his anymore and he'd never been allowed to touch things that weren't his.

Tony was aware that his dad was eyeing him from the corner of his eyes; he'd learned the hard way to always be aware of his surroundings and now he always knew who was watching him. He didn't comment on his dad's selection, though; he deliberately kept his eyes away from the man and studied his feet, waiting for him to be done with his shopping; suddenly he didn't want to spend any more time with his dad.

"Ah, would you please hold this?" Gibbs quickly put the set into Tony's hands and before Tony could do anything he was holding them. He eyed them carefully and thought he'd love to play with them; but after a few seconds, he realized that no, he didn't want to play with them anymore. These weren't his toys; _his_ were thrown away and ruined and he really didn't want anything anymore. He wasn't sure why Gibbs was buying them, though; it was possible that he wanted them for Tim for when he was coming back to stay with them again.

To Gibbs' disappointment, Tony didn't show anything when he held the toy. He stared at them for some seconds and then looked away; nothing like the first time he'd gotten him his first, or well, _second_ , set of action figures. That one had been an ice breaker; this one seemed to be working exactly the opposite way.

Sighing, he took a couple more toys from different shelves, both for Tony and Abby; picked some stuff for the house; led his son to the cashier; paid for the toys and then led Tony outside with a hand on his shoulder.

He wanted to start the conversation, but he didn't know how and before he knew it, they were back at home. Tony, obediently, helped with the stuff they'd bought and once they were on the table inside, he walked up to his room.

"What happened? I thought you were going to talk to him." Shannon asked with a hint of concern.

Rubbing his face with both hands, Jethro shook his head. "It didn't come up."

"It _didn't_ come up?" She asked incredulously. "He's 8 years old, Jethro! You're his _d_ _ad_! How do you expect something that is an issue for him to _come_ _up_? Did you even exchange a _word_ with him?"

When Gibbs only looked guiltier, Shannon growled with exasperation and called out for Tony and asked him to come down please.

"Hey! Here?" Jethro eyed her worriedly.

Shannon waved his concern away. "Easy! Abby's gone to play with her friend. It's just us."

A few seconds later, Tony was standing between them, looking at them with confusion and amusement; apparently he'd sensed that his mom wasn't happy with his dad.

"Hey, honey." Shannon smiled at him to make it clear that he wasn't the one in trouble. "You went back to your room so quickly that your daddy didn't get the chance to talk to you about what he wanted to."

"Sorry." Tony's eyes shot up to his dad, who looked guilty and forlorn. "What's wrong?"

"I've done something really stupid and I don't even know how to fix it." Jethro replied, sotto voce.

"How can I help?" The boy asked, determined to do whatever it took to help his parents.

"Ah, I gotta go pick Abby up from her friend's house; can you take care of him?" Tony was surprised to see the question was aimed at him.

Baffled, he pointed a finger at himself and raised his eyebrows.

"Uh-huh." Shannon grinned and then lowered her voice like if she whispered, Jethro wouldn't hear her. "He's kinda scared."

" _He_ 's still in the room." Gibbs groaned and sat down.

Tony grinned slightly and just nodded at his mother; admitting to himself that he had yet to get used to the way these two treated each other.

Shannon ruffled his hair and without a look towards Gibbs, grabbed her handbag and walked out. Before closing the door behind herself, though, she called out. "We're taking the kids to the movies tonight. Don't forget _that_ , Jethro!"

Her tone of voice suggested that he'd better have things fixed before that.

"Is she mad at you?" Tony asked quietly.

"She's upset because I'm being a coward." The man admitted sheepishly.

Tony's eyes widened. "But you're the bravest person I know."

Gibbs smiled ruefully, "Thanks for the voice of confidence, buddy; but to tell you the truth, _you_ 're _it_ from where I'm standing."

Tony tilted his head. Surely Gibbs didn't mean that he was the bravest person-... No, that wasn't possible. "What?"

"You, Tony! You're the bravest person I know."

"I'm only 8." He stated flatly.

"Thank you; yes; I'm well aware of that. It doesn't change anything."

"I haven't even been out of this side of country."

Gibbs patted the couch next to himself to indicate that he wanted Tony to sit next to him. "You're brave because you've gone through so much already and have come out stronger. You're 8, true; but even _you_ can't tell me you still haven't seen anything and I admire it about you and admire your big heart." He really liked it that he could hold intelligent conversations with his son; it was sad that Tony knew so much more than he should and was way older than his actual age; but at times, it made things way easier for his parents; they could talk to him without feeling the need to sugarcoat things or try to find simple words that a kid his age could understand; like now, he was sure Tony knew what he meant.

His son's eyes were wide; his mouth agape; but the gratitude and pride that were lingering behind the ever present doubt in his eyes warmed Gibbs' heart.

"I'm a coward because I've been trying to tell you something, but I don't know how. I'm afraid I might fail again."

"What?" Tony was frowning again; looking like he was totally lost.

Reaching towards the plastic bag on the table, Gibbs pulled out the new set of action figures and held it to Tony. "This is yours."

The boy quickly looked down and his face fell.

Gibbs pushed it towards him, but Tony's little hands went back and he shook his head.

"Remember I said I've done something stupid?" He asked and didn't wait to get an answer, "This is it. I screwed up when I made you share your toys with Tim. I'm sorry."

Tony shook his head again and then swallowed to be able to speak. "No. It's OK. You were right."

"No, I wasn't." Gibbs stated firmly. "The day I got you that toy, I told you that you could keep it forever and you didn't even have to share it if you didn't want to; but I forgot it and made you do exactly what I said I wouldn't." He took a deep breath and continued, "I know this is not gonna be like the last one; I know it's just not the same and believe me, I'll have a serious talk with that little boy when I see him again; he had no right to destroy your toys; he had to take care of them and now he's gonna be grounded when he comes back; but that's not the point; the point is I shouldn't have made you share them in the first place. You see, the thing is we, grownups, tend to mess up a lot; we also have trouble remembering important things when we don't get enough sleep. At least _I_ 'm like that."

"Huh?" Tony frowned; Gibbs was jumping from one thing to another; something that he usually didn't.

Chuckling, Gibbs said, "The day I acted like a giant moody bear? That day I was really really tired. I haven't slept for days and my brain had kinda left the building."

"Oh!" It was all Tony said.

"Yeah, not my best moment." Gibbs sighed. "You asked how you could help me fix things; you can do that by giving me another chance."

Tony's eyes immediately went to the toy that was pushed into his hands.

"By accepting that," The father nodded to the toy, "And by believing me when I say I didn't mean to break my _promise_ to you. That promise still stands, Tony. Noting will change _that_." He knew Tony'd understand what he was talking about.

Tony's hopeful gaze locked on his eyes.

"I didn't even realize what toys you were holding, that day; but whatever you own is _yours_ ; I shouldn't have meddled like that; I think I was pretty much sleepwalking." He explained further. "That's why it took me this long, and of course your Mom's help, to remember I've made a big mistake and I needed to apologize; the events of that day were a blur." Pausing, he smiled. "Actually, there's only _one_ thing that I _clearly_ remember about that day; you know what it is?"

Tony silently shook his head.

"Your Mac and Cheese! Man, that was _amazing_."

Tony's eyes shone with delight at the high praise and he smiled shyly.

"I _loved_ it. Where did you learn how to make it so perfectly? No, don't answer that; just make more of it. Will you?"

Tony chuckled. "Really?"

"Well, I should help you with the stove part, but yes. Your mom was so upset when she heard about it and realized that I've eaten the whole thing and haven't left her anything." Casting a quick glance towards the door, he made sure they were still alone, before continuing in a hushed tone, "I told her that there wasn't much to begin with, so she wouldn't kill me for not leaving her anything. Don't tell her that I just ate the whole thing because I couldn't control myself."

Tony was laughing now; glad that he'd done something to make his dad so happy.

"You'll make more, right? Like; like can you make some tonight?"

"Sure." The boy chuckled.

"Although, you'll probably regret making it in the first place when we keep asking for it. But hey, your fault!"

"I don't mind." Tony smiled widely.

"Also, thanks for it." Jethro added sincerely. "Not just because it tasted so good; also for having my six like that. I'd never want you kids to go hungry and well, don't wanna know what Shannon would've done to me if you all had gone hungry, just because I was dead to the world."

Tony cringed slightly at the choice of words and Gibbs noticed it; cursing himself when he remembered, belatedly, that the little boy was still reminded of his real mother whenever dying was mentioned somewhere, figuratively or not. So, he quickly changed the subject. "So, uh, do you think you can like this new set as much as the first one?" It was his way of asking if the boy still trusted him and his words.

Tony contemplated a couple of seconds before he finally let his fingers trace over the figures again; biting his lip, he looked up and stared the man in the eyes; the determination that he saw in those blue eyes and the way he'd talked and apologized more than made up for the harsh action of last month. It proved that things were different here and he was thankful for it. "They're really cool. Thanks." He whispered.

Gibbs pulled his son into a fierce hug, "Do me another favor?" He waited until he felt the boy nod against his chest. "Next time I forgot a promise, to you or to anyone else you know, write it down on a piece of paper and stick it to my forehead."

Tony chuckled. "That way only the others will remember it."

Frowning, Gibbs thought about it and then shrugged. "Yeah, well, your mom will remind me once she sees it and boy, let me tell you this, she won't be subtle."

Tony's laughter loosened the tight grip of guilt that had wrapped around his heart and he finally breathed easily. Shannon was right, this boy was damn forgiving; but hey, he'd been right, too; this boy was also really brave and strong and owned the biggest heart he'd ever seen in anyone.

They'd gotten truly lucky when it came to their children.

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 **The End...**

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 _ **A/N: Let me know what you think?**_

 _ **Friendly reminder that the next story will have a new story-line; totally unrelated to this story or the ones before this.**_

 _ **Once again, thank you all for your support, attention and kind words.**_

 ** _._**

 **I still don't own the show and its characters and all mistakes are mine.**


	13. Not a Real Chapter

**Hi everyone; sorry! This is not a real chapter; but until I can get to it and post a new story, I needed to say something to a reviewer... I just couldn't pretend like that comment wasn't there!  
**

 _DEAR Guest; you've left me a one-line comment and I gotta say the self-righteousness comes through clearly and is very off-putting! I understand it's hard to admit you're not as perfect as you clearly think you are, but to just see things that are simply not there is kinda weird and repelling._

 _They say when you can't admit to your own shortcomings, you accuse the others of those things and then get upset about it; if that's the case, please, refrain from attributing your own flaws to me; because **self-congratulation?** Seriously! I don't feel even slightly satisfied even after a real accomplishment (let alone writing a fiction whose characters I don't even own); ___because I know what a huge world I live in and I know my accomplishments are nothing compared to what others do and what's still unknown; so how can I possibly send that message through my writing when I don't feel it myself?_ (Besides, I've read some good works, -and I'm not talking about actual literary works right now, I'm talking about other fictions-, so I have no reason to even think my stories are worthy of anyone's congratulations, let alone mine!)_

 _Also, **I've never thought my stories are all that clever or well-written** ; I try to do a good job here, but, at the end of the day, this is supposed to be fun for me and for the others, as well; so I can only put so much energy into it; I've got a real job and a real life and real projects for which I have to write and write and write, and those things take most of my time and energy.  
_

 _What I'm trying to say is that the things you've accused me of? They're simply not there; that means it's impossible for anyone to detect them; because, hello! Not there! So, I don't know what you're talking about and I don't know what's given you those ideas; but whatever it is, you've got the wrong impression._

.

If anyone gives me constructive criticism; I'd thank them and I'd use their opinions the best way I could; but to just point out things that are not there; that simply makes you sound like a bored brat who doesn't know what to do with their time!

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Sorry everyone else! I needed to say these things, in case there's anyone else who thinks the same way when it's the furthest thing from the truth and when I have to fight myself every single day to just keep going; self-congratulation is a joke for me!

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	14. May I Not Have Your Attention, Please?-1

**_A/N: Hi there, everyone; let me first thank you for your patience and all your kind reviews and comments, asking for more chapters of this series; sorry for keeping you waiting for so long._**

 ** _In this one Tony is 6, almost 7, Abby is 4; and there's still no Tim or Kate in the picture for the Gibbs._**

 ** _Hope you enjoy this story, too and let me know what you think._**

* * *

 **.**

 **. May I Not Have Your Attention, Please? .**

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"Oh my God, Tony?! What... on earth have you gotten into?" Shannon barely censored herself before the curse word could leave her mouth when she spotted her son trying to sneak up the stairs and into his room.

Tony cringed and hung his head; he knew his parents would be furious if they saw him like that and that was why he'd tried to be quiet and sneak into the house and into his room without them noticing him.

"Your mother asked you a question, young man!" Gibbs wasn't yelling like Shannon, but his tone showed his anger nevertheless.

"I... I'm sorry." Tony mumbled, not looking up from the spot on the floor.

"That's not an answer!" Gibbs growled. "Why in the world are you covered in mud?"

When Tony kept quiet, Shannon sighed. "Look, kid; I know you're tired of having to stay quiet and cautious because Abby's sick; but so are we; don't you think we deserve a break? Is it too much to ask to stay out of trouble for a few days?"

Silently the kid shook his head and bit his lip.

"Then how can you explain this?" She waved her hand towards Tony's muddy appearance and the trail that he'd left behind him on the floor. "Don't you think I have enough to deal with? I really can't run around and clean your mess, too!"

"He'll clean it himself." Gibbs said firmly.

"Yeah? Well, he better! I'm going to check on Abby." She snapped angrily and walked past Tony and up the stairs to check on her sick little girl.

Abby had been down with mumps for a few days and along with the little girl, the parents were both tired, as well; they still weren't sure how she'd come in contact with the virus; the chances of someone getting that infection was pretty rare, but Abby played with many questionable things and to be honest, it was a wonder she didn't get sick or infected more often. Thankfully, they all had been vaccinated against mumps; still, they'd forbidden Tony to enter Abby's room and had tried to sanitize the whole house meticulously, multiple times; which had left them even more exhausted. After one week, they were both drained and grouchy.

This was the first time they'd faced a challenge like that; they'd pretty much dived into the parenthood and still weren't ready to deal with the fear of having a sick kid. Surprisingly, both Tony and Abby were always healthy and very strong and that was why, after many months of having the kids, it was the first time that one of them had gotten so sick and seriously, it couldn't be a simple illness like the flu or something; Abby had to go and get infected with something rare like the Mumps virus and although it wasn't a serious or dangerous illness, it was still bad and the young parents had worried themselves sick. Even Shannon who was a nurse and had dealt with sick and injured people for so many years was having a hard time; dealing with ailing strangers was one thing and having her own kid sick like that was a whole new dilemma.

Tony had been worried about Abby, too and despite his young age, he was great at reading people and he could see how worried both Shannon and Gibbs were; so he'd tried to stay out of the way; had tried to cause no trouble since he knew his new parents were having a hard enough time. He really hadn't meant to get into trouble; but a bunch of older kids had cornered him at the playground and had thought him a lesson about his place. That was why he was covered in mud.

"You know where the mop is; go clean yourself and then clean the floor." Gibbs' order made him flinch, but he nodded his head and quietly turned around to walk up the stairs, but his dad's voice stopped him again.

"Wait a minute. What's that?"

Tony swallowed, he'd hoped they wouldn't notice anything but his dirty clothes and appearance; but of course, Gibbs, the ever observant investigator, had noticed it.

"What's happened to your face?"

"Nothing." Tony mumbled.

"Nothing? So your lip is swollen and you have a cut on your cheek for nothing?"

Tony wasn't sure why Gibbs was mad at _him_ ; it wasn't like he'd asked those kids to beat him.

"What did you do?"

Tony's head turned up with confusion. "I-... I..."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes. "Did you do this to get our attention? Did you get into a fight?"

Tony's eyes widened.

"That's it, isn't it? You're jealous that Abby's having all our attention these days and you wanted to make us see you?" The man was shaking his head, his tone laced with both sadness and disappointment.

"What?" Tony was shocked. Did his dad really think that Tony'd done this on purpose? How could he do that, anyway? He was so confused. "No." He shook his head vigorously, even though it hurt him badly.

Gibbs didn't believe him, though. During the months that they'd become the parents of those two kids; they'd always paid equal attention to the both of them and they knew Tony needed a lot of attention because of his past; he wouldn't put it past the boy to demand more of it when he felt they weren't seeing him. "Go to your room."

"But, dad! I didn't-" the small boy stammered, but he was once again cut off by the man who'd adopted him all those month ago.

"Go, Tony! Right now I don't have time or the patience for this." The man was shaking his head with frustration. "You can talk when you're ready to admit to your mistake."

Tony opened his mouth to say he hadn't done anything; but he was silenced with a glare and with the uncertainty that maybe he had done something wrong after all; maybe this actually _was_ his fault.

"You have to learn that you can't be the center of everyone's attention all the time."

"But I didn't do it for your attention. I didn't do it." Tony protested; sounding close to tears.

"Your room; then bathroom; then cleaning the floor. Now, boy! Go!" Gibbs almost barked the orders and walked away; he was done.

Tony sank to the floor; sitting on a step, he cradled his arm against his chest. It really hurt, but he didn't have time to check it out; he had to get cleaned and then mop the floor; Gibbs and Shannon were already mad at him and they clearly thought he was acting out to get their attention; he couldn't let that continue; he had to stay out of their ways so that they'd forget this evening and maybe forgive him.

With some difficulty, he pulled his tired and battered body up the stairs and into the bathroom to get cleaned before going back downstairs and cleaning the mess he'd created there. He'd think of his arm, later. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd spent a long time ignoring one injury or another. He'd become an expert in that.

His arm was broken; he knew that because he'd had broken his arms and legs before and he was glad that this time he at least couldn't see the bone. There was a time that his father had hit him with a golf club and the bone in his arm had snapped and then came out of his skin; the sight of it had made him sick and he'd cried loudly; which was something he'd learned not to do when his father was teaching him a lesson; but he hadn't been able to keep it in, that time and thankfully the sight of his arm had put a stop to his punishment. His father had thrown him into the arms of one of the staff and ordered him to call the doctor. He couldn't remember much of that night; just that he'd woken up with a white cast on his arm and an order to stay in his room.

That had been the only time that he'd seen his bone; every other time that he'd broken a bone and needed a cast, the break had been hidden like this time.

He'd kept his arm against his chest the whole time he was cleaning the floor and then quietly walked up to his room; there, he'd tried to come up with a way to fix his arm; but he didn't have a cast and didn't know how to make one; he just knew it was really painful and that it was keeping him from moving the broken limb; it was only because he'd felt that pain -and even worse- before that he knew how to be quiet about it.

Not wanting to disturb Gibbs and Shannon for something as unimportant as a broken arm, especially since they thought he'd done that to have their attention, he decided to do something about it himself. Grabbing a T-shirt, he carefully wrapped it around his arm and even though tears were running down his cheeks, because it really, _really_ hurt to touch or move his arm, he kept quiet and didn't make a sound; that was something else that he'd become good at with his father's lessons. After wrapping the T-shirt around his arm, he took the duct tape that he'd grabbed from the kitchen's drawer and started to role it around the makeshift bandage on his arm to secure it in its place and make it hard like a cast. When he was done, he knew it wasn't as good as a cast, but that was all he could do; so he rolled his shirt's sleeve down to hide the whole thing and went to bed; telling himself that his teeth would forgive him for not washing them just one night.

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 **TBC ...**

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 _ **So, what do you think? Next chapter will be up next week.  
**_

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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	15. May I Not Have Your Attention, Please?-2

_**A/N: I need to remind you that there's no connection, whatsoever, between the stories of this series; each story is a standalone.**_

 _Thank you so much for your support, comments; alerts and faves. Hope you like this chapter, too._

 _Dear Guests; and Jane and Anya; thanks for your comments; glad you're enjoying these stories and I'm glad to be back, too; Anya, you're right, they do need to be head-slapped!_

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* * *

Four days later, Abby was doing much better and even though it was clear that she still needed some days to get back to her normal self, she was doing so good that her parents decided it was safe to let her play in the backyard for a couple of hours, with her toys, not the bugs or anything else, of course, but still! And she was still not allowed to have playmates, just as a precaution, but at least she could eat better, the swelling had gone down and both Gibbs and Shannon were feeling like they had aced an important test; they knew they'd been a bit ridiculous, but since this had been their first time having one of their children sick, they figured they could be excused for acting a bit crazy! Not that anyone had seen them to judge them or anything.

That night they all were able to get a good night rest and the next morning both parents finally felt fresh and well-rested.

"You making pancakes?" Gibbs yawned as he entered the kitchen and found his wife at the stove. "Abby can't have them yet."

"Tony can." She replied easily. "I think I was kinda harsh to him the other day. Now that I've rested and can think properly, I can see that he was just being a kid."

"I don't know," Gibbs shrugged. "I mean what he did _was_ wrong and as much as it pains me, I think we gotta be strict with them when it's needed."

"I know; but we could've just asked him to clean the floor and himself nicely; we didn't have to be so hard on him."

Craning his neck, Gibbs threw a glance towards the stairway to make sure the kids weren't up yet and when he was certain they were still alone, he said, "Shan, I was thinking maybe we should have Tony see a professional or something."

Frowning, she looked up from the pan in her hand. "A professional? What for?"

"You know..." He shrugged again, "He's been through a lot and... Well, I feel it's affected him more than we've realized."

"What do you mean?"

"The other day when he came back all dirty and muddy?"

"Yeah?"

"He also had a bruised cheek and a cut on his lip." He informed her.

"What?" She exclaimed. "O my God! How did I not notice that? How did I not see it these past few days? O God, I'm a terrible mother! I just yelled at him for making a mess, not even noticing my baby was hurt! Not even seeing it for days! How could I miss that? Why would-"

"Hey! Hey!" Gibbs put a hand on her arm, took the pan from her hand and turned the stove off. "Calm down. You were just tired; that doesn't make you a bad mother."

"But it does!" She shook her head desperately, feeling like she'd failed her son, "Thank God, you noticed, though! Did you help him? Did he tell you what happened? Is he sad that I didn't notice?"

"Shannon? Would you calm down?" Gibbs rolled his eyes. "That was really not my point."

"What? What are you talking about? What's your point, then?"

"I think Tony's gotten into a fight to get our attention because we've been giving all our attention and time to Abby!"

Shannon's eyes widened and filled with sorrow. "Oh! My poor baby!"

Shaking his head, Gibbs said, "No, Shannon! Not this time. Don't you see? That's why I'm saying he needs to see a professional."

Shannon looked confused.

"If we don't fix it now, if we don't stop this, he might grow up to become a self-centered narcissist!"

"Nar... Narcissist?" Shannon moved back from her husband's arm, looking horrified. "Can you even hear yourself? Jethro, he's only 6!"

"And he thinks he has to be the center of everyone's attention already!"

"So what? He hasn't been the center of anyone's attention for the last 6 years! What if now that he can have some attention, he'd ask for it? I'd say that's a good thing that he's finally trusted us enough to ask for it!"

"First of all; he gotta learn that sometimes, no matter what, he can't be the center of attention; second of all, at what cost? You think just because he's 6 and because he's never had it before, he should do anything to get our attention? Including getting into fights and acting out? Shannon, be reasonable; I'm _worried_ about him. I'm saying this because I _love_ him."

Shannon had a frown on her face, though and it was clear that she was seeing things under a different light. " _First of all_ ," She started, mimicking her husband's words, "I think he knows better than _anyone_ in this world that he can't be the center of attention all the time, if _at all_!" She spat forcefully; "Second of all, what makes you think he'd gotten into a fight to get our attention? I haven't heard a peep out of him during the last two weeks! In fact, the day that he came back all dirty and apparently bruised, we caught him trying to _sneak_ into the house without anyone noticing! Don't you think that if he wanted our attention, he would've burst into the house, wailing and demanding that said attention instead of trying to be quiet and unseen?"

 _'Well, if you put it that wa_ y...' Gibbs had to admit that her words were making more sense than his own theory.

"God, you can be really dense, sometimes!" She sighed exasperatedly. "So, let me get this straight; our son comes back home bruised and dirty and all I do is snap at him for making a mess on the floor without even noticing that'd been hurt and _you_ notice it and still do nothing?"

As Gibbs averted his gaze, Shannon's eyebrow rose. "Tell me you did nothing!" She demanded. "Please, _please_ tell me you didn't accuse him of purposely getting into a fight to get our attention."

Gibbs gulped as he briefly met the angry woman's eyes.

Throwing her hands in the air, she turned around. "That boy can't take a break!" She shook her head. "Great job, Gunny! Why don't you quit your day job and become a psychiatrist instead? You know, since you're so quick at seeing the problem and announcing it! Or wait; maybe you should become a judge; you're clearly great at making hasty judgments and conclusions based on-"

"OK! OK! I get it! I screwed up!" Gibbs jumped in, cutting off her ranting, not able to stand any more of the well-deserved reproach.

"Narcissist! Some investigator!" She muttered sarcastically as she walked out of the kitchen to go up and check on the kids! Sometimes she wondered how Gibbs had become such a good investigator with such a terrible habit of jumping to conclusions without having the proper evidence.

Gibbs, disappointed at himself; sank into a chair and tried to find a way to apologize to Tony for accusing him falsely like that. He hadn't been sitting there long before Shannon's shout of his name had him run up the stairs three at a time.

Inside Tony's room, he could see Tony looking scared and surprised at the same time, trying to get away from his mother for some reasons and as he looked at his wife, he found her looking terrified, trying to approach their son.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked, sounding petrified himself.

"Mom?" Tony's eyes were big as saucers.

"Don't you _Mom_ me, young man! Let me see your arm!"

"But it's nothing!"

"Tony!" She exclaimed. "You gasped and jumped awake when I just _touched_ it! I'm a nurse, son; I think I can say the difference between nothing and something!"

Reluctantly, Tony finally let his mother grab his arm and roll up his sleeve; or try to role it up; when she was unsuccessful because something was preventing the sleeve to go up, she gently took it off of Tony's body and gasped as she saw the makeshift cast on her son's arm. "O dear Lord! Tony, what's this?!"

Tony swallowed hard, threw a shy glance at his father and murmured something.

"What?" Shannon frowned and leaned forward to hear her son. "Oh, God! Of course I know you didn't do it on purpose." She said and threw a dirty look at her husband.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Abby's sleepy voice came from the doorway.

They all looked back and found her standing just outside Tony's room; rubbing her right eye with her right fist. Clearly Shannon's shocked shout had woken her up, as well.

"Oh, sweetie; I'm sorry I woke you up. Can you please go back to your room and rest some more until I come and get you? You can't be here."

She looked between the occupants of the room and saw the shirt and the duct tape on Tony's arm. "Is Tony alright?"

"Yes!" Tony answered before anyone else could say anything.

"What's that?" She pointed to the thing on his arm.

"Uh, nothing. Just... Just something I made. I'll show you later." He said quickly, trying to smile for her.

She smiled back at him and nodded; she was still sleepy, so she staggered back to her own room.

The grownups once again looked at Tony, waiting for an answer.

Tony remained quiet, looking at everything in the room but the two grownups.

"Can you tell me what happened, Tony?" Shannon prodded kindly. "Please?"

Shrugging, Tony answered nonchalantly. "It's just broken."

 _'- Just\- broken?' What's 'just' about it being broken?_ "Brok...Broken?" She stammered. "How do you know? Let me see."

"No!" Tony tried to pull his arm away. "I've had broken bones, before. I know."

 _Oh, God, could this day get any worse?_

"Tony, if it's broken, then we need to get you to the hospital and fix it; you can't leave it like that. When did this happen? Why didn't you say anything? You can't hide your injuries from us!" Gibbs' tone was once again reproachful, but this time it was out of worry.

Tony was really confused now; what was he supposed to do? He hadn't said anything and the man had told him he needed to grow up and stop asking for attention and now he was upset because he hadn't mentioned a simple broken bone? "My father's doctor always put a cast on my broken bones! I fixed it like he did with the tape. It's safe."

"My... son! No! They have to X-ray it and make sure the bones are aligned right and then they'll fix it; you can't do it at home." She sounded really chagrined. "Why didn't you tell us? We could've helped you. You shouldn't have suffered like this. I bet it's painful."

"It's not too bad." Tony shrugged.

"Tony? When did this happen?" She asked dreadfully, already guessing the answer.

Swallowing, he murmured, "Friday night."

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 **TBC ...**

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 _ **Well, I know it's not exactly the best place to end the chapter, but I had to do it. The next chapter, which is the final chapter of this story, will be up next week.  
**_

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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	16. May I Not Have Your Attention, Please?-3

**_A/N:_**

 _Dear_ _ **SJS27** ; thanks for your comment; but I gotta say that **this series and all of its stories are centered around Tony** ; I don't know what's not to understand; I'm Tony's fan and I wanted to write my own version of kid-Tony fictions; and since some of the ideas of these stories come from the actual events of the show, I turned the other characters to kids, as well. If you're looking for stories revolving around kid-Kate, Tim or Abby, I'm afraid you have to look for it somewhere else. Also; as I've mentioned multiple times before, these stories are not connected; each one is a standalone, so it's not like Gibbs and Shannon have made ALL these mistakes; they can't learn from mistakes that they haven't made when a new story begins! You're right, though, now that I look back, I think four days of not noticing and letting things go is a mistake on my part; it's just too much and I wish I've thought of it, sooner. Thanks for pointing that out and for letting me know what you think of this series.  
_

 _Dear_ _FRENCHIE, Guest,_ _Amy,_ _Maccie B and Guest, again; thank you for your comments and your words._

 _As for Shannon; well, being a nurse doesn't necessarily prepare you for having your loved ones hurt; it always impacts you harder and more deeply; freaking out when your own child is sick or hurt kinda happens, no matter what-especially if you're a young mother; hopefully she'll learn from her mistakes.  
_

 _ _Maccie B; you know what? I think you're right; no matter what universe, I don't think Gibbs is meant to have a son; he just can't deal with it the right way!  
__

 _ _.__

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 _"Tony? When did this happen?" She asked dreadfully, already guessing the answer._

 _Swallowing, he murmured, "Friday night."_

* * *

Shannon's eyes widened. "That's... That's four days ago, Tony!"

The boy shrugged again; Gibbs took a step back and heavily leaned against a wall; somehow, he knew Tony hadn't said a thing because of what he'd accused him of! Jesus, and Shannon called _herself_ a bad parent! What did that make _him_?

Closing her eyes, Shannon let her head down to her chest, as she, too, did the math in her head and realized why Tony hadn't said a word about being and why he had taken care of it on his own; although, chances were that even if Gibbs hadn't said those things, Tony would've still hidden his problem in order not to avert their attention from Abby. The boy had really been worried about her.

Tony's left hand, the one which wasn't broken, touched her cheek and she realized that a tear had left her eye and Tony was wiping it away with concern. Carefully, she pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, baby. I should've noticed sooner."

Shaking his head against her shoulder, Tony quietly said, "No! You were worried about Abby. She was really sick. I didn't want you to see it. I'm good at hiding things and taking care of them."

And wasn't that just ten times worse? The boy, only 6 - OK, almost 7- was so good at hiding his pain and taking care of his needs that the grownups could actually be excused for not noticing! ' _No, they couldn't_ ;' a voice screamed in her head. They could never be excused and forgiven for things like this; for not noticing; for not seeing; for this type of neglect! Because it _was_ neglect, no matter how scary it was for Shannon to realize that they'd both neglected Tony and the boy was so used to it and to worse, that he hadn't said a thing; that he'd thought it right. So, no, it wasn't excusable; but Tony excused them, nevertheless.

"I still should've noticed. I will do better; I promise, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm _just_ learning to be a Mom. Still..." She trailed off and looked at her son like she expected to see disappointed in his eyes; but the only things she could see there were confusion and acceptance.

"You're already great." The boy reassured her, because he could see how much the two people who'd taken him in wanted to build a good home for their kids. "Both of you." He included Gibbs, noticing how the man had gone all quiet and with his shoulders slumped, looked really sad and alone.

"Well, thank you, but good parents will notice things like that. I just... I just want you to know that you can... that you _should_ come to us whenever you feel unwell; no matter how minor you think the problem is; or what some of us say when we're tired; it's our duty to help you; please please come to us." She insisted. "You see, at your age you might miscalculate the majority of a problem and end up really hurt and I don't think either of us can take that; I _know_ we can't take it if something happened to you. So, will you promise me? Will you come to us and tell us when something is bothering you?"

Tony looked uncertain; despite everything he'd heard, he was sure he could handle things on his own; he'd always done so!

"I know you're independent and that you know how to take care of yourself; but you also need to be a kid; you gotta let the others help you, because that'd make us feel useful; you know?" She smiled wanly.

Sighing heavily, Gibbs looked up from the floor and tilted his head. "Your mom is right. We want to help and we want to know when you have a problem; no matter how small it is." Pushing his body away from the wall, he walked towards his son and crouched down in front of him. "You probably think I'm being two-faced after what I said to you the other day; but I want you to know that I'm sorry for that. That was totally wrong of me and out of line and I knew better than saying something like that. I wasn't thinking clearly. Also, I'm sorry you had to suffer quietly, but no matter what's going on with everyone else, if you're hurt or if you have a problem, we're always there for you; even when I'm being an idiot, you should find someone else to tell them and then they'll do whatever is needed to open my eyes, because I know I can become-"

"Darn it!" Shannon suddenly exclaimed; cutting off her husband's speech. "You cleaned the floor with that arm?!"

Tony's head was reeling from the way Gibbs and Shannon were taking turns to talk and the things they were saying. "It... It was nothing." He whispered.

"Tony, I've had a broken arm a few years ago and I _know_ how much it hurts." Shannon shook her head; "And the tough guy with big mouth here," she glared at her husband, "knows it, too. He whines over a headache or a runny nose and he calls the _others_ narcissist."

"Nar-what?" Tony frowned with confusion.

OK, so Shannon was still mad at him and she clearly wouldn't forgive him any time soon. Gibbs gulped; he knew she'd make him pay and this time he actually didn't want to escape it; he felt he deserved it for putting Tony through this.

"I'm still learning." He murmured.

Shannon sighed. "That's true. We both are. We're new to this, Tony; we..." She swallowed and decided that so far they'd always been honest and straight with Tony, so they should keep doing it. The boy understood more than his age and he liked it better when the adults explained things to him and acknowledged that he wasn't naive. "When we started to go for adoption, we went through many classes and we always thought it was easy; I never understood why they repeated some of those stuff over and over again;" She noticed that Tony was now studying her and listening carefully; "I thought it was easy and clear; told myself how hard could it be? You know? That how could some parents not notice things and stuff... But... But I know better now. I understand now that it's too easy to freak out over something and not notice anything else and it's scary; I understand how easy it is to make a mistake." She looked sad all over again; "You've already been through so much and you deserve better than us; if only you could... If you-"

"Did I do something wrong?" Tony asked quietly; he understood some of the things Shannon was saying; he just didn't get why she was saying those things to him; he couldn't get what both Shannon and Gibbs were so upset about. He wasn't even sure what they were asking of him or he would've just accepted it.

"No, son. _We_ did." Shannon stood up. "But we're new to this parenting thing and although we know the rules, it's a whole new story in practice."

"Okaaay." Tony nodded, just because he felt it was expected of him; because to him, they hadn't done anything wrong really; OK, Gibbs had said things that weren't true and that had confused Tony and had hurt him a bit; but it wasn't bad enough for them to act this way.

"So, if you could just forgive us this once... We, uh; we might make more mistakes, but not this huge; I swear; just normal mistakes like you and Abby might do, but together we'll learn how to be a real family. Does that sound good?" Gibbs asked, still kneeling in front of his son.

"And you know what real families do?" Shannon asked and without waiting for a response, she answered her own question. "They tell each other things; ask for help; rely on each other and _support_ each other no matter what. I know we didn't do such a good job of it this time, but we'll do better; I can promise you that much. And we get it that you're strong and wary of asking for help; but we _want_ to help. Let us be there for you?"

"And in the meantime, forgive me and my big mouth?" Gibbs asked tentatively.

Tony looked between them; trying to digest the whole real family speech. That sounded kinda great; but why would people do that if they could do things on their own? He couldn't exactly get that part; but he realized that a lot of things were different from what he'd learned in his first house and that he had to relearn many of them. So maybe this was one of them; maybe he had to just accept it and go with it and see how things turned out. He didn't want to be a burden; like his real father used to call him; but he figured he'd try this real family thing for a while and then he'd see how it worked out. Maybe his father had been wrong. "OK."

"OK, you forgive me? Or OK you'll let us help?" Gibbs asked.

Shrugging, Tony said, "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Of course, I did; and not just because I didn't see the broken arm and made you clean the floor like that and not noticing it for days. I did wrong because I wasn't supportive and jumped to the wrong conclusion and said things that were wrong in so many ways. I gotta learn not to jump to conclusions; not to... I just..." He sighed.

"You gotta learn to think before you speak." Shannon shook her head.

"Yeah, that."

"Thanks." Tony didn't know what else to say; he was a bit choked at the wave of emotion and kindness he was receiving from his new parents and of course he could move on from some wrong accusation when they were saying that they were new to this as well and that together they needed to learn how to be a real family.

Pulling his son to his chest, Gibbs kissed the top of his head and thanked his lucky star for being given this gift. "Now, let's get you to the hospital and put a proper cast on that arm." He hoped they could somehow go through that without the staff of the hospital calling CPS on them for not bringing Tony to the hospital sooner; hopefully, Shannon could convince her colleagues that either it was a one-time incident and not a case of child neglect; or ask them to give them one more chance; hopefully her reputation would save them this time; he couldn't lose Tony; he couldn't forgive himself if they did something that'd put Tony in the system again. They were Tony's family and were supposed to be there for him and Tony was his; his son, his everything along with his girls.

"It's really not-" Tony started to protest but when he saw raised eyebrows and worried looked from his parents, he conceded. "OK."

"And pain meds... Jeez; just how high is your pain threshold?" Shannon muttered pretty much to herself as she ushered her boys out of the room. "I'll call Jane to come and sit with Abby while we get Tony to the hospital. Good thing we've got people around to help us." She said and walked off to call their neighbor to ask her to come over if she could; setting an example for Tony that it was alright to ask for help.

They all needed to learn things as they went on, but somehow, she felt that Gibbs and she were the ones to make the most mistakes in this deal; the kids were kids and so, they were allowed to make mistakes and their mistakes were never big and messy like the ones grownups did; and besides, they were both great kids who were pretty much independent and well-behaved. _They_ were the ones who'd jumped from being inexperienced young couple to being the parents of two kids who were already past their early years; they'd had no proper preparation like most parents did and she hoped that because of the lack of that preparation and experience, they wouldn't screw up too much; and yet she was hopeful because she knew they'd been lucky and had found themselves the best kids ever.

Somehow, they'd make this work; she just knew it.

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 **The End...**

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 ** _Hope you can let me know what you think. Thanks everyone for your support._**

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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	17. They Don't Define You - 1

**_A/N: Hey guys; here is another totally unrelated story in this series.  
_**

 ** _In this one Kate and Tim are living with the Gibbs' for the time being and Tony is around 9._**

 ** _Hope you enjoy this story, too and let me know what you think._**

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 **.**

 **. They Don't Define You .**

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"Tony? What are you doing here?" Gibbs asked as he entered his house and found his son in the living room, watching a movie on TV.

Tony looked at him, looked at the TV and then again at him, like he wasn't sure what kind of question that was. "Hi, Dad. I'm... Uh, watching TV?"

Gibbs snorted. "Yes, thank you, I can see that. I mean everyone else has gone to your friend's birthday party, right? Why are you _here_ and not there?" He was a bit afraid that Tony was again pulling back, not playing with other kids. He'd always pushed Tony a little to find friends because he knew it'd been hard for him at first. But after three years of him living there with them, he thought the problem was pretty much solved now.

Tony averted his eyes and bit his lip.

"Tony?" Gibbs prodded gently, with a hint of reproach in his tone.

"I wasn't invited." The kid finally replied.

"You-" Gibbs blinked. "What are you talking about? Of course you were invited."

Tony looked up and smiled bitterly. "No, I wasn't. Brian gave cards to everyone he wanted in his party; he gave one to Abby, one to Kate and one to Timmy."

"I'm sure he'd still want you-"

"Dad," Tony sighed and shook his head, suddenly looking way older than 9. "He didn't. And it's OK."

Gibbs was lost for words.

"Why are you home so early, anyway?" The boy tried to change the subject.

Gibbs shook his head to snap out of his thoughts. "It's Friday and we didn't have a case; even _we_ can get an early afternoon." He answered with a growl, like he was sorry for himself that they had to work such late hours sometimes. Sitting down on the couch by his son's side, he studied the kid for a couple of seconds from the corner of his eyes before once again asking, "So, you sure you weren't invited?"

Tony almost groaned when he realized they were back to that topic. "Well, pretty sure the lack of an invitation note says everything."

"Well, maybe he'd left it on your book or something and it's dropped down without you noticing."

Rolling his eyes, Tony said, "Dad, he came to the _house_ to give us our cards. Or well, to give the others their cards. We were all together when he handed the others their cards and acted like I wasn't even there."

Gibbs almost flinched at that. What the hell was wrong with kids, these days? "So, you're telling me that even Abby and the others knew you weren't invited?"

Tony looked up at the man beside him with a raised eyebrow. "They've been going on and on about it the whole week, Dad. Of course, they knew. Also, did you miss Kate's taunting and Tim's giggling every time the party was mentioned? They were pretty happy I wasn't invited."

"I figured you were all just happy to be going to this party." Gibbs mumbled, not believing he'd missed all the hints. "I think you're wrong about Tim and Kate, though; I'm sure they're sad you aren't there."

Tony snorted before he could stop himself but didn't comment. He knew better. The remarks those two had kept making had made it pretty clear what they thought and besides, if they actually cared, they either wouldn't go or at least wouldn't keep mentioning it in front of him, knowing he wasn't invited.

Apparently his dad had thought of the same thing, because he said, "Still, I suppose they could've at least stopped talking about it if they knew." He also thought that if it was the other way around, Tony'd probably not go _at all_ when one of his siblings hadn't been invited; he probably wouldn't go to show his dissatisfaction for seeing a sibling excluded from an event and to show that the uninvited sibling or friend wasn't alone even if she or he hadn't been invited to some stupid party.

"Any idea why you were excluded?" He had to ask because as far as he knew, Brian was Tony's friend; it was strange that he was the only one not invited when even Timmy was.

Shrugging, Tony said, "I think it's because of how I look."

Blinking with confusion, Gibbs looked down at his son with a frown. "What's wrong with your look?"

"Well, thankfully nothing's wrong with my _face_." Tony chuckled; although it did sound a bit off. "I mean imagine what everyone would do if I had a scar here, too." He pointed to the general area of his face. "They'd probably think I'm a criminal." He said those words so lightly that if Gibbs didn't know better, he'd think the kid was actually finding it funny.

"I'm lost, son. What are you talking about?"

"It all happened after that pool thing."

"What pool thing?"

"Uh, remember about two months ago? When Abby wanted to go to the pool and you made me go, too?"

"So?"

"So, I didn't want to go for a _reason_." Tony sighed. "And I told you why back then and you still made me go because you think I shouldn't be ashamed of what's happened to me."

Gibbs frowned. Now he remembered. "I still stand by my words. What's happened to you and leaving you with those scars wasn't your fault, Tony and even someone made a mistake and was somehow left with some scars on their bodies, they shouldn't hide and let those scars rule their lives. You shouldn't let some scars define you."

"Yeah, that's what you said back then, too." Tony sighed; feeling a bit frustrated; because adults always said things like that and used words that usually meant nothing or didn't work in the real world; ' _not let them define him?_ ' Well, it wasn't exactly up to him; people looked and people talked and people decided they didn't want him around because of those scars.

Gibbs was still lost, though. "OK, and that's related to this how?"

"Daaaad!" Tony almost whined, sometimes he had to explain every single thing to this man. "There were other kids at the pool. Brian for example. They saw my back and they all started to talk. I know because I overheard some of them; now they just don't wanna be around me and those who hadn't actually seen my body, still stay away because other kids have told them about me. They all stay away now. Nobody wants to play with someone like me. I'm a freak."

"No you're not." Gibbs snapped, sounding frantic.

"Well, they think I am." Tony said with a shrug. He'd explained the whole thing so nonchalantly that it hurt to even listen to him. "It's OK, Dad. Don't worry about it." He smiled kindly and turned his attention back to the TV.

"Tony-" Gibbs wanted to say it's not OK, but he didn't know how he could convince him.

"Really, it's OK. I'm used to it." He shrugged again. "I never had a friend before either. It's alright." He smiled again, which turned into a grin, "besides, watching Batman while having popcorn is way cooler than going to a party." His eyes though were telling a different story; Tony might have mastered the art of hiding his feelings and keeping his voice steady while talking about things that bothered him, but his eyes still showed how hurt his soul was.

So, no, it wasn't cool to be excluded from a party and Gibbs knew Tony was saying that for his sake and wasn't that just sad? The 9 year old boy was covering his hurt for the sake of the grownup. Gibbs was mad at those kids who were treating his son this way; he wanted to be mad at his own children, too; well, Kate and Tim weren't his exactly, but they were living there with them for the time being, so he could call them his if he wanted to and he did want to be mad at them, but they were kids and Gibbs didn't think they actually understood the depth of the problem here.

They were actually kids; none of them had lived through life-changing experience like Tony had, being forced to think and act like an adult in order to survive. He couldn't expect every kid to understand things that Tony did, even if they were older than Tony, like Kate was. Besides, it wasn't exactly a secret that Kate was bitter and harsh to Tony because she felt he could take it and that he deserved it for being a boy. She was rarely hard on Tim, because the boy would burst into tears for pretty much any reason which made him a baby in her eyes and unworthy of her real attention; but Tony stood his ground and while Kate liked it, she still felt he was the kind of boy who needed to know girls were stronger and better than boys.

As for little Tim; well, he actually didn't seem to have a definite side; whichever side was heavier, he'd go there, just like a ball rolling around; and he seemed to be a bit envious of Tony because Tony got to live with his mom and Dad while he had to stay away from them and since Tony was so strong that he'd always take care of his own needs and never had to ask for help, Tim seemed to feel even more jealous. And for those reasons, he enjoyed it when Kate could hurt Tony with her words or whenever they seemed to have the upper hand.

God, kids these days! Gibbs was pretty sure it hadn't been this complicated when _he_ had been a kid, but then again, he had grown up in a pretty normal and ordinary environment. His house, today, with the kids from different backgrounds and different problems was anything but normal.

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 **TBC ...**

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 _ **So, what do you think? Hope you can let me know.  
**_

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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	18. They Don't Define You - 2

A few hours later, Shannon entered the house; kids, screaming and babbling all at the same time, followed her to the kitchen. She'd picked them up on her way home from the hospital and the thoughtful look on her face said that she wasn't actually listening to what the kids were saying. But the children either didn't notice it or didn't care; because they kept talking as loudly as they could without it become shouting; and still all at the same time!

"Hey, boys." She smiled when she spotted her husband and her son in the kitchen. "I see you've started without us."

"See, son? This is how grateful she is when we make dinner so she wouldn't have to." Gibbs joked as he rolled his eyes.

Tony chuckled and let his mom hug him and as Gibbs watched, she whispered something in his ear and the boy shrugged, smiled and said something like ' _It's OK.'_

That made Gibbs deduce that whatever was on Shannon's mind had something to do with Tony and since he was an investigator and solved mysteries for a living, he was sure it also had something to do with him being absent from the party.

"Oh, hey, Tony." Kate's voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked away from Shannon. "Hey, Gibbs."

"Hi." He gave the girl a small smile and then bent down to kiss Abby who'd suddenly appeared at his side, hugging his legs. "Hey, baby girl. Hey, Tim." He looked at the little boy who smiled and waved back.

"Daddy, the party was soooo greaaaat." Abby restarted her babbling.

But Kate looked at Tony and addressed him, instead. "Yes, Tony. It was great. We had so much fun. The cake was so delicious, too."

"Yes, yes." Tim chimed in. "It was chocolate cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting. It was so good."

That was Tony's favorite, and everyone knew that. While giving half an ear to Abby's babbling, Shannon and Jethro exchanged a look and then turned their attention to Tony to see what he was doing. The boy was smiling; however, it seemed forced and tight as the other two kids kept mentioning every amazing food they'd had and the games they'd played and all the fun they'd had. Kate even repeated some parts and kept repeating her words.

"You have no idea how good it was." She smiled and if Gibbs and Shannon wanted to be honest, they'd say she was outright sneering. "Right, guys?"

"Definitely. We even got presents. They gave us these cool T-shirts." Tim showed his as Kate held up her own. Tim's had the Batman's sign on its front and the picture of the batmobile on the back, while Kate's T-shirt had signs of Superwoman.

"That's... Uh, great." Tony was still smiling, but the truth was he was hurting on the inside, no matter how many times he'd said it was cool and he didn't mind not going, it still hurt and at that moment he just wanted to run to his room and hide from everyone else so he wouldn't hear how great that stupid party had been. The truth was Brian was supposed to be _his_ friends; Kate and Tim hadn't even been there when Tony had met Brian for the first time and Tony had even saved him from bullies, but now Brian was scared of him, like every other kids and they didn't want to talk to a freak like him.

At the mention of the T-Shirts, Abby suddenly looked upset. "I really wanted to bring you one, too, Tony; but Brian didn't give me one; so I give him back my own shirt, as well. I didn't want it if you couldn't have one, too."

"Oh!" Tony looked surprised and this time he smiled genuinely; "Thanks, Abbs; but you shouldn't have given yours back. It's cool."

"I didn't want it." Abby repeated her words. "It's not cool."

But then Kate rolled her eyes and said; "I don't get it; they were nice to invite us; you shouldn't have given the present back; besides, it's rude."

"Oh, but what you did was nice and polite?" Gibbs couldn't take it anymore. Earlier, he'd doubted a little if Tony had got it right when he'd mentioned that the other kids were happy he hadn't been invited, because seriously, siblings were supposed to have each other's back; not be vicious like that; he'd thought that maybe problems seemed worse in the world of a child and things hadn't been as bad as his son had imagined; however; now he could see that he'd given those kids too much credit and he needed to fix a few things now or they'd think it's alright to mistreat Tony whenever they desired.

Now he could clearly see that his son had a point and it hurt him to see how hard his boy was trying to keep smiling.

"What?" Kate looked shocked at hearing those words; but honestly, at that moment, Gibbs couldn't care all that much.

"OK. Enough with the talk about that party." He announced, not clarifying what he'd said to the young girl. "We've made lasagna, but since you three have had so much food and dessert, you should go wash your teeth and just go to bed; we'll be by to say goodnight in a bit."

"What?" Kate's eye widened. "It's just 8 and it's the weekend."

"You've been up and around since 7 in the morning and you haven't had a nap today. So, bed! Now!" Gibbs ordered firmly.

"But I like lasagna." She whined again and Tim followed. "Me, too."

"Can we have a little bit please?" Abby asked from where she was sitting on the counter.

"We'll save a bit for you so you can have it tomorrow." Shannon conceded to calm them down. "It's really not good to eat too much food before bed." She knew what her husband was doing, but they couldn't do that with the food; dessert, on the other hand, was another story. She smirked with herself. "OK, shoo. Go get ready for bed." Acting like the kids weren't there anymore, she turned to her husband and son. "So, since it's Friday night, what do you say I quickly make a pie and have some chocolate ice cream with it for the dessert?"

Gibbs had to fight to hold back the smirk that was threatening to break out. "Sounds amazing. All this talk about food and cake has made me hungry. What do you say, Tony?"

"Pie and Ice cream?" Abby whined this time, followed by Kate, who indignantly said, "Hey, why do you have to make it tonight? Why not tomorrow? We want some, too. It's not fair."

Tim merely nodded his head vigorously, looking at the fridge like the ice cream would come out to him if he looked hard.

"You were all ranting about all the amazing food you've had at the party; there's only so much sweet you're allowed to take in one week and you sure have had your share for this week. So while you can have lasagna tomorrow, no dessert or ice cream or cookies or anything for you three this week. I don't want you any more hyper than you already are and we sure don't want three sick kids in the house. And that's totally fair that we have some dessert, too since you three have had it at that party." Shannon explained as she stared down at Kate. "Please, go get ready for bed, now."

Before the three kids could protest again, Tony spoke. "We can have it next week instead. That way they can have some, too."

Abby's face lit up. "Yes, pleaaaaase. Please. Please."

Both Shannon and Jethro were flabbergasted at Tony's big heart; they knew he knew the kids had been having fun at his expense with the way they were talking about the great time they'd had at the party, yet, he was still willing to wait to have one of his favorite desserts, so that the others could have some, too.

"I think they'll be fine, son." Shannon faked a laugh and ushered the kids out of the kitchen. "Go, all of you. You three have had your fun for tonight; it's time the rest of us had some fun, too."

"But-"

"But what?" She interrupted Tim quickly, giving him a stern look which made the little boy close his mouth abruptly.

"Is Tony going to bed, soon, too?" Kate asked petulantly.

"That, young lady, is none of your business." And while she said that with a smile, the scolding didn't sound any less biting. "Abby, seems like you're the wise one, tonight. Make sure the others do their things and go to bed, quickly."

Abby, who loved being given important tasks, cheered up instantly and nodded her head, "OK, Mommy. Good night."

That, consequently, raised groans out of the other two kids. Abby didn't care, though; she was determined to do the job she was given. So, looking back into the kitchen, she said, "Good night, Daddy. Good night, Tony. I really missed you there, tonight. I'm glad you're going to have fun, now." She smiled brightly and marched up the stairs, yelling at the other two kids to hurry up and follow her.

Tim was still pouting and stuck his tongue out at Tony and quickly ran away when he heard a growl and saw the glare Gibbs was sending his way for his action, knowing that he was probably gonna pay for it later. Kate stood there a moment longer, glaring at Tony like it was his fault that they had to go to bed early.

"Kate?"

"I'm not tired." She finally sighed.

"Then lie in your bed and read a book, or I don't know, think about your actions and behavior, until you get tired; whatever you do, you'd better be in that bed in 10 minutes. You've done way more than enough for one day and I don't like to repeat myself, honey." Shannon reminded the girl kindly, but she was firm and her eyes along with her slight frown showed she wasn't exactly happy with the way the girl was behaving and the way she was looking at Tony.

"Fine." The young girl gritted out and sending one more angry glare Tony's way, she stomped away before the adults could actually say something about her behavior; thinking with herself that she's gotten away with it.

 **.**

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 **TBC ...**

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 _ **I hope you've liked it and that you can let me know what you think.  
**_

 _ **Thank you, everyone, for your support.**_

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.

 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	19. They Don't Define You - 3

_**A/N:** Thank you, every one, for your support and your comments; and thanks to __SJS27 and the guest reviewers to whom I couldn't respond directly. I'm glad you're enjoying this story, so far; thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.  
_

 _Ah, just one point; when Shannon said that the kids had had enough sweet for one week and when Gibbs said they'd been up since 7 in the morning so they needed to go to bed early, they were actually saying what was right and what was good for their health; it's not a punishment and Abby, too, needed to follow those orders for that night._

 _Also, dear Romani; I hope whatever it is that you're not getting will become clearer in this chapter._

 ** _** One more thing;_** _in a talk that I had with_ _JimChou; I realized that I've never actually mentioned anything about the date in which these stories are taking place, merely because I thought the hints that I've given were enough and probably because I thought you guys could read my mind; sorry about that._ ** _What I'm trying to say here is that these stories are taking place around the time when the 4 kids of this story were actually kids which would make it sometime before 1980 for this particular story_** _(I know in reality Kate is not older than Tony, though; I did make some minor changes based on what I needed for these stories)_ ** _. So, as you all know, many things were different back then compared to what we have now and what we expect from a parent nowadays. Keep that in mind and maybe it'll become easier to accept why Gibbs and Shannon don't always get involved in the kids' fights and disputes and why they behave the way they do. (_** _ ** _JimChou, thank you, again, for reminding me to mention this to everyone else, as well._ )**  
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 _ **.**_

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"I'm really not that hungry." Tony tried to get out of his parents' way and avert their minds from the whole dessert thing, but neither of the grownups were having it.

"You helped me with the lasagna, there's no way you're not eating it." Gibbs wasn't going to accept his son's request to leave. "Unless..." He paused, "Did you add something to it when I wasn't looking?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know; sugar?"

Tony's eyebrows rose and then he wrinkled his nose. "Why would I do that?"

Shannon chuckled behind him. "Because he's done so himself."

"He's added sugar to lasagna?" Tony whirled around, "Why? Did you mistake it for salt?"

His mother snorted. "No; it was his idea of a prank. We've just gotten married and had lots of prank wars and well, can you say you're surprised if I say I've always been better?" She asked gleefully.

"You guys had _prank wars_? For real?" Tony couldn't believe his ears. His parents were seriously the _coolest_.

"Oh, only the best kinds." Gibbs said with a faraway look in his eyes, like he was missing those wars.

"So you added sugar to her lasagna?"

"Yes, he did. And then he said he was feeling sick and refused to eat it himself and -"

"And you did?"

"Only the first time!" Shannon sighed, accepting the defeat. "But from then on, anyone who refuses to eat something they've made, we know they've probably added something wrong to it."

"But I haven't. I swear." Tony stated innocently.

Both Jethro and Shannon burst into laughter and as Jethro ruffled the kid's hair, Shannon said, "Oh, we know, honey and please, don't take that as an invitation." She looked at him with mock horror and then added. "But you're gonna eat dinner with us, anyway. And then we _will_ have dessert. We deserve to have our share of fun. I had a _long_ boring day."

"Me, too." Gibbs nodded.

"Not me." Tony grinned and when the parents looked at him skeptically, he said, "What? I watched lots of movies. They were great."

"So you refuse to have fun with us because you've watched some movies? You're abandoning your old parents because of that?"

"You're not old!" Tony rolled his eyes. "And I'm not... I'm... It's just..." His shoulders dropped. "I just don't like excluding the others."

"They've had their fun. Don't worry; they know it's our turn." Shannon reassured him. "Didn't you hear Abby? She, too, knows it's our turn to enjoy the night.

"As for Tim and Kate; if they don't understand, well it's their problem." Gibbs added, "We're not exactly happy with them for the way they've been behaving and they're gonna know it and they'll learn they can't treat my kids this way."

Tony was secretly pleased to hear how his parents had his back and even though he didn't want the other kids' feelings hurt, he was happy to know he wasn't all alone here. During the recent years, his new mom and dad had proved many times that they'd be in his corner no matter what, but he'd learned in his first home to never get his hopes up and never expect the others to be there for him; and letting go of those lessons were harder than learning he wasn't alone anymore.

They wisely didn't talk about the party from which Tony had been excluded during the whole dinner and even when they sat on the couch to watch a movie together, they kept their commentaries related to the movie. Oh, they wanted to address the whole thing, but they didn't want to ruin the night for Tony. They hadn't preplanned a night like this; but that didn't mean now that they'd simultaneously decided to make this night as special for Tony as it had been for the other kids, they'd want to ruin it by a painful talk.

Around midnight, when they finally sent Tony to get ready for bed, they had a quick talk about the situation and decided to have a short talk with Tony before he was properly tucked in; so they both went to his room.

Tony, who'd prepared himself for his parents to talk to him about not being wanted by the other kids, wasn't surprised when they finally came to his room. But before they could say anything, he spoke up. "I know what you wanna say; but please don't. I'm really OK. Like I told Dad, this is not the first time that I haven't been invited to a party; I don't even like parties all that much."

"Son, it's still not alright. What those kids are doing to you is not right and I know you're trying to not think about it and be cool about it, but we know it still hurts." Gibbs said, not letting his son hide his true feelings.

"Because it'd hurt _us_ if it happened to us and we're adults."

"I'm not a kid." Tony protested.

"Well, age-wise you're only 9." Shannon pointed out with a smile. "And it hurts _us_ that our son had been treated this way."

Sighing, Tony gave in. "OK. But do you think speaking with _me_ changes anything? I'm not the one who pushes them away; I know I'm the one with problem and the-"

"You better not say that word again." Gibbs stopped him. "You're not a freak, Tony."

"Whatever." The boy sighed, feeling bad when he saw how his mom winced when she realized what he'd meant to say.

"OK, first of all; your dad is right; you're not a freak; would you think that way if another kid had some scars? Or, worse, if you saw a kid who was missing a limb?" Shannon asked gently; "Because as painful as it is, I see a lot of that where I work."

Tony winced, realizing that he would hate it if another kid was treated so poorly for just looking differently. "Of course not."

"There you go." She said triumphantly. "So, _you_ don't have a problem. _They_ do, for thinking that way. Second; we know it's not your fault, but we also know it's affecting you. So, we were thinking..." She glanced at her husband and at his nod, she continued, "There are options for you."

"Options?"

"Ways to remove those scars." She suggested quietly; "We still believe you shouldn't be ashamed of them and that they don't define you; if anything they show how strong you are; but we don't want them to affect you or make you feel like an outcast."

"There's plastic surgery." Gibbs added, in case Tony hadn't gotten what Shannon had been meaning to say; but the look of surprise on Tony's face told him that he'd gotten it.

"I..." The boy paused and shook his head. "You want me to have a surgery?" He asked quietly.

"Oh, no, honey!" Shannon shook her head quickly. "It's not what _we_ want. We're saying that we can make that happen if _you_ want us to. For us, those scars or anything else, won't change who you are. You're our amazing, strong and brave son and we're so proud of you."

Gibbs nodded his agreement and said, "But what happened today; or better to say, what's apparently been going on these past two months- that you haven't even mentioned before today-" he said the last part sadly, "Is not fair to you. So if _you_ want, we can make it happen. We want you to be happy." He shrugged; even though they knew that as Tony grew older, those scars would become less visible, and even though they didn't like the idea of their son on an operating table, they'd still go for it if it was the thing to make Tony feel better about himself.

Tony studied their faces carefully, looking for any sign that this was what _they_ wanted, but finding none he quietly shook his head.

"You don't want it?" Shannon asked. "Are you scared of the surgery?"

Tony again shook his head, but then paused. "Well, maybe a little." He confessed. "But... I... You don't have a problem with them?"

"Your scars?" Shannon frowned and at Tony's shy nod, she shook her head. "No problem at all. Well, that's not true, we do have a problem that you've suffered so much because of that man and that you have to carry the reminders of it now. We do have a problem with the fact that you got them in the first place; because you deserve so much better; but that's it. No matter what, those scars are not affecting how you look or who you are; you're still beautiful, inside and out."

Tony's face wrinkled. "Mom. I'm not _beautiful_." He whined but then smiled shyly, "Thank, though."

"Fine, handsome." She chuckled.

"OK, so, um. No. I don't think I wanna fix them this way. It doesn't really matter to me. I think you two are right, if someone is my true friend they won't change their mind because my back is ugly."

"Not ugly." Gibbs growled; he wondered how long he had to correct his son for his self-doubt and self-deprecating words to go away. "But you're right, true friend see beyond physical problems."

"And there's no guarantee they'll like me if I don't have them, anymore, either." The boy sighed. "I mean Kate and Tim have decided they don't like me and they haven't even seen my back."

"Tony!" Shannon's eyes widened. "They do like you."

Tony didn't say a word, he just raised one eyebrow... And seriously, if he could make one aware of their mistakes with that simple gesture at age 9; what would he do when he turned 30?

Feeling a bit self-conscious under Tony's look, she amended. "Really, they do. They just feel competitive."

"What? But we don't even live together all the time! Why would they feel that way?"

"Don't ask me why. I just know rivalry when I see it." Shannon shrugged; she knew jealousy was probably another reason for their behavior; but she didn't want to mention it. "Just give them some time and you'll see."

Tony was smart enough not to argue about something like that; it wouldn't change anything anyway. So he just shrugged; he felt he already knew how things would go, no matter how much time he gave them; but he also felt that despite what Shannon was saying, she knew it, too and she'd probably do something about it; something he'd rather not know about.

"We're proud of you, Tony. Of how strong you are and how you treat the others and how you care about them each and every day." Gibbs patted his son's shoulder. "But if you ever changed your mind, just let us know. We've got your back whatever you decide."

Somehow, that comment, more than anything else, gave him hope and energy. He nodded his head in thanks, but he knew he wouldn't change his mind; because with parents like that, he knew he could overcome any obstacle in life. And besides, he kinda thought of his scars as a reminder of his past. He didn't want them removed, because they reminded him of a day that he didn't think anyone would miss him if he ran away and hid in the jungles and mountains for the rest of his life. He didn't feel that way anymore and he was happy about it and he wanted to remember that he was lucky now, even though he hadn't had a good childhood in his first house.

Kissing their son goodnight, the parents left the room. Outside, they shared a relieved smile and Gibbs put an arm around his beautiful wife and led her downstairs. "We really got lucky in that department."

"Amen." She agreed easily. "Now, we just gotta find a way to teach the lesson to those two that aren't ours!"

"Joy!" Gibbs muttered sarcastically.

"I know." She sighed. "But I think it's time we did something, I love those two kids, but I can't let them hurt our son anymore. Kate gotta learn her snarky remarks are not accepted here."

"Tell me about it." The man snarled. "Let me know when you've decided to do something about it."

"Oh, we've already started to do something about it." Shannon smirked.

"We did?" Gibbs frowned for a second before getting it. "Oh, you mean the whole _'you had your fun now it's our turn_ ' thing?"

"Genius, huh?" She laughed.

"Well, we'll keep this up and in no time, she'll learn that she can't take her insecurities on our son and make him feel miserable."

"And we won't even need to give her a lecture." Shannon pointed out happily. "Not that I won't do it if I see she's refusing to learn."

Nodding his agreement, Gibbs said, "And if Tim keeps going this way, then we have to send him back to his parents; I won't let them bully Tony like this; especially since Tony's scared to retaliate the same way."

"I'm gonna talk to Brian's mom, tomorrow;" Shannon sighed; "I wonder whether she knew why Brian had refused to invite Tony to his party."

"I don't think Tony'd like you to tell her the reason. If she knew the real reason, I know she wouldn't have let this happen."

"I still gotta talk to her; she gotta understand that it's not nice to invite all my kids except one." She growled. "I won't tell her anything about Tony; but I can't just let this go. Maybe if she knows, she'd do something about Brian's behavior."

"You're such an amazing mom; you know that?"

"Gee; thanks!" Chuckling, she walked to the kitchen and said, "What do you say we have some more lasagna?"

Arching an eyebrow, Gibbs said, "Didn't you promise them to let them have some of it tomorrow?"

"Oh, I made no _promises_. I just told them we'd leave them some. But we can't help it if we got hungry in the middle of the night and had to finish it. I'm sure they can wait another few weeks for it and have something else instead for lunch. It's not like that if there's no lasagna they'd go hungry!"

"You're evil." Gibbs laughed. "I love that."

"I've got my moments." She shrugged and sat down in front of the food and dug in, laughing as her husband shrugged and followed her lead.

Yep; in no time, she'd have the other kids just as well-trained as her husband and they'd learn that in her house they wouldn't get to be bullies and get away with it.

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 **... To Be Concluded!  
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 _ **The Epilogue is coming... Hope you've enjoyed this one.  
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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


	20. They Don't Define You - 4

**A/N: I said the last chapter was the last one for this story-line; but the comments asking me to add to it made me realize that, for at least once, you need to see how they'll deal with Kate, as well.  
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 **So, here's a longish epilogue of some sort. Hope you all enjoy it.**

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"Don't put it there!"

Tony was startled by the angry voice and turned around to find Kate with her hands on her hip, starting at him with fire in her eyes. "What?"

"I said don't put your stupid book there." She snapped again.

Looking down at the book that he had been about to put on the kitchen counter, Tony frowned, "Why?" He'd just wanted to put it there for a second to get a glass of water; he didn't understand what was wrong with that.

"Why?" Kate growled, "Because you put your stuff everywhere and because that book is dirty and because-"

"Excuse me!" Shannon's voice put a stop to her ranting.

Kate, finding Shannon in the doorway relaxed her posture, dropping her hands from her hip. "Yes?"

"Are you by any chance one of the parents in this house, Kate?" Shannon asked cordially.

"Um, no?" Kate looked confused.

"Did I put you in charge? Or did Jethro do it when I wasn't around to hear it?" She asked seriously to make sure the girl wasn't acting on her husband's behalf; because then the problem would be twofold.

"Ah, no. Why?"

Tony, unlike Kate, seemed to have gotten what was going on, because he was biting his lip to keep the smirk away; Kate was going to be all red-faced soon when she realized what Shannon was getting at and Tony kinda found it funny when she looked that red.

"Did I ask for your help to clean the house?" Shannon kept asking. "Besides the usual chores, I mean."

Kate shook her head; all the air of confidence disappearing from around her.

"And I didn't ask for your advice either; right?"

"Ah, no?"

"Then why do you think it's alright to walk around the house and snap at people for doing something as normal as putting their books on a surface?"

There; the red face had started to appear; Kate was catching up. Finally! "I... I was just-"

"You were just what, Kate?"

"I was just trying to be helpful; you do all the work around here and Tony'd just mess it up and I figured I could help." She tried to be firm and confident, but even she knew she was sounding far from it.

"First of all, Tony actually helps me with the house chores when I ask him, Kate." Shannon looked at her disapprovingly; "Last week _you_ made Abby do your work and when she refused to do it again you made Tim do it. Don't think I haven't noticed, young girl."

Swallowing, Kate averted her gaze.

"Second of all," Shannon went on, "Tony's our son and as one of the adults of this house, it's _my_ job to say what goes where and as far as we are concerned, we don't care all that much where he puts his stuff. This is his house, too." She pointed out. "Besides; this is a _house_ ; not a hospital; there's no need to be all sterilized."

"May I go to my room, please?" Kate asked through clenched teeth.

"Did I sound like I was done with you?" Shannon asked with a raised eyebrow.

Glancing at Tony, Kate frowned and then looked away; she didn't like the idea of being chastised in front of him.

Shannon, reading the kid's eyes, said, "You should've thought about it when you made Tony the target of your anger, Kate. I let it go the last three times; thought you'd snap out of it and we saw Tony was handling it well. But enough is enough. What did Jethro and I say to you the last time you kept snapping at Tony for no reason?"

Kate gulped, but she didn't say anything; she was actually feeling embarrassed.

"I asked you a question."

"Maybe I should go?" Tony asked quietly when he realized this was getting more serious than he'd thought at first; he didn't want to be there for a dressing down because he knew if he'd been in Kate's shoes he wouldn't want a witness.

Sighing, Shannon bit her lip before smiling at her amazingly understanding son. She nodded her head and murmured a _"love ya"_ when Tony was passing her to leave the kitchen.

Once they were alone, Shannon began again; "Would you have done that if your roles were reversed?"

Kate looked at her from under her eyelashes.

"What Tony did... Would you have done the same for him? Would you have left if Jethro or I were talking to him about a mistake he'd made?" She knew the answer to that question and so did Kate; no, she wouldn't have left unless she was ordered to; she'd think it was too much fun to miss. Shannon sighed again. "I remember we asked you the last time, too, Kate; what's your problem with Tony?"

And just like the last time, she didn't have an answer, so she stayed quiet.

"Do you hate him?"

The girl's head snapped up and she shook her head.

Shannon knew she was telling the truth; she'd seen the look of worry on her face when Tony had screamed one night, caught in his nightmares and unable to find his way out. "I know you don't." She conceded. "So what is it?"

She shrugged.

"Use words, Kate. You seemed to be perfectly good at it when you were snapping at Tony this morning and a few minutes ago."

"I don't know." Her chin trembled.

"Is it that you just need an outlet and he's the perfect target?"

"It's not like he doesn't fight back when we fight or listens to me when I tell him to do things."

"He doesn't listen because there's no need to take orders from _you_." Shannon had to remind the little girl that she wasn't in charge there. "So what? You just like the challenge?"

Kate sighed and looked away.

"I ask you again, what did we say to you last month when you were again snapping at Tony for no reason? What did we tell you when you kept bringing up that birthday party, knowing he was hurt for not being invited?"

"You said you'd send me and Tim back to our parents if we didn't stop being brats." Kate said quietly.

"Then why did you start again?"

"Are you going to send me back?"

Shannon was about to repeat her question when suddenly a new thought occurred to her; did Kate _want_ to go back? Did she think this would be the way? That if she behaved this way they'd send her back and she'd be with her family again? Deliberately letting go of some of the tension in her body, Shannon walked to a chair and sat down, "Come here, Kate." She pulled a chair out for Kate.

The girl obeyed quietly and sat down in front of Shannon.

"Kate, look at me." Shannon ordered gently and when Kate looked up, she asked, "Do you _want_ to go back? Do you miss your parents that much?"

The girl looked surprised, she shook her head, then nodded, then shook her head again and finally her shoulders dropped and a sob escaped her throat.

"Oh, honey!" Shannon sank to the floor; kneeling in front of Kate, she pulled her into a hug and let her cry until she calmed down. "You better?"

Kate pulled back and nodded.

"Katie, you talk to your mom and dad every night; you know they love you and they miss you; if you need to see them so badly, just tell them, or tell _us_ and we'll arrange for you to go and see them; you don't have to keep it to yourself or find a creative way to have that." She paused. "You certainly don't need to hurt Tony to have that."

"I... I don't... I didn't-"

"You wanna try a full sentence? I know I'm trying but I'm still not that good at reading minds." She smiled down at her.

Kate cracked a shaky smile before taking a deep breath.

"You don't _what_ , honey?" Shannon prodded.

"I didn't mean to hurt him."

"You sure?" Shannon frowned; "because I doubt you'd have another reason. I just don't know whether you did it so we'd keep our words and send you back to your parents or you did it so that Tony would be hurt, too, now that you are hurting."

Kate wasn't so sure herself, either. She was just nine and everything was confusing. "I'm sorry I made the others do my chores." She said instead.

"That's not what we're talking about now, Kate." Shannon reminded her. They were kids; of course she knew somehow they'd find a way to shrug off their so-called duties of the day.

"I'll apologize to him?"

"Oh, make sure you do that;" Shannon encouraged, "But you're not leaving this kitchen until you tell me what's going on with you. If we don't understand the real problem, this will keep happening and I'm sure none of us would want that, right?"

Kate shrugged.

"Do you wanna be with your parents so bad, Kate?"

When Kate didn't answer, Shannon frowned; what was the problem if this wasn't why Kate was acting out?

"Do you wanna go see them?"

Kate shrugged.

"Kate; don't be like Tim. Please say what you want. I'm begging you." Shannon sounded both joking and serious.

Finally Kate looked up and stared at her pseudo-mom; because she'd kinda been a mother to her for a while now and she loved her; she loved all of them here and she had to tell them that but she wasn't sure how to do it. "I miss my mom and dad;"

"I'm sensing a 'but'?" Shannon prodded when Kate paused with hesitation.

"I _want_ to see them."

"OK, we can arrange that. But again with that 'but'!"

"I don't wanna go _back_."

"Then..." Shannon frowned; "OK, you're so not helping me here. Let me get this straight... You miss your parents and you wanna see them?" She asked and when Kate nodded, Shannon continued, "But you don't wanna go back to them?" This time Shannon watched as the little girl shook her head no, "Then what? You want _them_ to come here?" At the confused look she got from her, she realized that it hadn't even crossed the girl's mind and it wasn't the whole traveling that was bothering her and suddenly it clicked. "Ohhhh!" Her eyes widened. "You just don't wanna go back."

Kate looked down, her cheeks red with shame.

"Heeeey," Shannon put two fingers under her chin and gently brought her head up, "You don't need to feel bad for that."

"But they're my parents." Kate said quietly.

"And it's OK if you wanna stay in a place where there are kids your age to play with. That's why they agreed to leave you here, in the first place."

"But I-"

"Look, even when your mom is all better and healthy, you have a home with us here; you don't have to worry about that. I know for a fact that they are planning to move to this town when your mom is better so that you can be near us."

"Really?" Kate's eyes shone with hope.

"Yeaah. But... Don't let them know I've ruined their surprise. OK?" She widened her eyes.

Kate chuckled. "OK."

"So, this is it? You just didn't wanna leave?"

When Kate shrugged and looked away, Shannon frowned again.

"But why would you act this way, then? Why would you do exactly what we asked you not to do? Why hurt Tony?" Shannon again didn't get a response. She sighed, this mom-slash-psychologist-slash-mind reader thing was sometimes too hard to handle. "Kate; you remember we said Tony is our son and this is his home and he's always gonna be here, right?"

Kate looked up and frowned, but then nodded; not sure what Shannon meant.

"He's not going anywhere; _because_ he's our son; just like you're your parents' daughter." They'd explained this to Kate before, that just because they weren't Tony's and Abby's biological parents, it didn't mean they weren't their real family; but maybe Kate still hadn't gotten it.

"Well, of course." Kate responded with confusion.

"Then why do you do what you do?" Shannon threw her hands in the air; feeling completely lost.

"I..." She looked down and mumbled something Shannon couldn't hear.

"Uhhh, what?"

"Iwishhewasmybrother." She said louder, but still too jumbled for Shannon to get.

"What was that?"

"Ugh!" Kate growled. "I wish he was my brother."

"Were..." Shannon corrected unconsciously before frowning; "What? What do you mean? "

"I just wish I had a brother like him." She sighed.

"And so you're mean to him?" The young mother, of course, knew how kids hurt each other when they liked each other; but to this point? And when they wished to be sibling? Especially when they already _were_ sibling?

"Well..."

"I just don't get it. He already _is_ your brother."

"But he's not!" Kate leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Don't you get it? He's your son; and I'm not really your daughter and this is his family and I'm not really his sister like Abby is and I wish I was... Were!" She was frustrated and things were finally pouring out of her mouth; "I wish it could be real. I wish... I... He... He's cool and... He's annoying, yes, but he's nice and he takes care of Abby and he loves Abby so much and I just wish..." Tears were once again gathering in her eyes and Shannon was finally understanding it.

Her eyes softened. "Honey, I told you that no matter where you are and no matter what, you have a home with us. That means Tony _is_ your brother in a way." She cupped her small face in her hand.

Kate nodded quietly; "But, when I leave..." She trailed off; she felt that when she left, she'd just become a friend; someone they'd _probably_ be happy to have around from time to time, but it wouldn't be like now; it wouldn't be like how Tony and Abby are together and she was jealous of them.

"If that's what you want, he'll always be your brother, Kate." Shannon smiled knowingly, "We both know that Tony will always be there for you, too, like he is for Abby. He's just that kinda boy; don't you agree?" She raised an eyebrow. "So you're mean to him because you're jealous?" Shannon asked and when Kate flinched, she knew she'd nailed it. "Oh... You kids!" She chuckled; "Give him a chance, Kate. Drop the tough girl act a bit and try to be a sister to him and you'll see how protective of you he already is. Because let me tell you; he's already there for you; you just have chosen not to see it, because I guess you're afraid if you let it sink in, then you'll feel more hurt when you have to leave. Am I right?"

The corners of the kid's lips were down as she nodded.

"But you're already hurting, Kate." Shannon reminder her. "So why don't you try my way now? I mean you tried yours and it didn't work; try mine and see for yourself that you'll hurt less." ' _And Tony will hurt less, too!'_ Shannon's mind added but she didn't voice it. "I mean he did leave earlier because he didn't want you to be embarrassed in front of him. Didn't he? That's the kind of things a loving brother does."

Kate looked up a bit, feeling even worse when she remembered earlier when Shannon had asked whether she'd do the same for Tony or not and she'd thought that no, she wouldn't have left. So, maybe Shannon was right; maybe Tony was already there for her and she just didn't wanna believe it because she was scared? She needed to learn to be a sister; she just didn't know how to do that and she said as much to Shannon.

"Just watch Abby." Shannon laughed quietly; "Watch Abby and you'll learn how to be a sister, honey." She stood up. "Now, I believe you have a brother you need to apologize to." She winked and as Kate nodded, once again looking ashamed, she said, "don't forget what I said, let him show you he cares." She started to leave the kitchen, but then paused and said, "And you'll be doing everyone's chores for a week, young girl. That's for making them do your job for you before; and you'll be doing Tony's chores for another week after that; plus, you'll be grounded for the duration of those two weeks." She added, "That's for what you've been doing to him lately, even after we told you not to. So you better start behaving if you want a chance at this sister thing."

Kate nodded without a word; she felt it was only fair. At least they weren't actually sending her back home for good. She missed her parents; but there, she was lonely and she knew she'd miss her ' _brothers and sister'_. She smiled; it sounded nice.

She did have siblings.

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 **A/N: OK, this is it... No, seriously, this is it for this one! I'd love to hear what you think and thanks a lot for your comments; requests and support.**

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 ** _And I still own nothing but my mistakes and the plot of my stories!_**


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